The Type 30 was a bayonet that was designed to be used with the Type 38 Rifle and the Arisaka Type 99 and was used by Japan during World War II.
Description[]
The Type 30's blade is approximately forty centimeters long with a handle length of eleven centimeters. This is substantially longer than the counterpart of the time, the American M1 Bayonet. Coupled with the extremely large length of the standard Japanese rifles, Japanese troops could use it as a sword, lunging at opposing allied troops.
The blade itself was made of steel and was fullered in the middle.[1] The production stamps on the bayonet were placed on the lower end of the blade, at the top of the crossbar.
Variants[]
Because of the Type 30's wide production status, it was only natural that many variants would be produced in its long service life. Many of these changes were caused by variations in production by the various factories and arsenals that created them. The most notable changes were those which effected the overall look of the weapon, such as redesigns of the hilt and blade. The first of these came in mid war production which made the fuller blade more blued. However, later in the war, the blade lost its fullered design and was generally of a crude design.[2]
History[]
The Type 30 bayonet was initially developed in 1897 following the request to create develop a new bayonet to equip standard Japanese infantry with. From then on, it entered full mass production, becoming standard for all Japanese army troops and in fact some naval troops. Therefore, it saw service in fundamentally all regions of Japanese operations during the war. In total, approximately eight million examples of the Type 30 bayonet had been produced during World War II.
References[]
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