High speed study of a Japanese Type 38 15cm howitzer firing on maneuvers in 1922

The Type 38 15cm Howitzer (三八式十五糎榴弾砲, Sanhachi-shiki Jyūgo-senchi Ryūdanhō) was a 1905 German design by Krupp that was purchased by Japan as the standard heavy howitzer of the Imperial Japanese Army at the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

Although obsolete by the late 1930s, the Type 38 howitzer saw service in conflicts like the Second Sino-Japanese War, Soviet-Japanese Border Wars and in the early Pacific War. Against the Chinese, the Type 38 was used with some success due to the fact the Chinese were desperately lacking in heavy artillery in the early part of the war. However, whenever the Japanese did face Chinese heavy artillery typically armed with German 15cm sFH 18 heavy artillery guns like during the Battles of Wuhan and Changsha, Japanese gun crews found themselves both badly outranged and hopelessly outgunned and the Type 38 was withdrawn from front-line service.

In 1942 however, as the Type 4 Ho-Ro self-propelled gun, units were deployed on Luzon and other islands in the Philippines, and were used in combat against American forces at the Battle of the Philippines in 1944. Other units were retained on the Japanese home islands in anticipation of the projected Allied invasion.

One rare note about a historical artillery clip is the apparent use of hearing protection, although this is admittedly not a combat situation.