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The Type 4 40 cm rocket (四式四〇糎噴進, Yonshiki yonjū-senchi funshinhō) was a 400 mm (16 in) rocket used by the Imperial Japanese Army in the final stages of World War II.
The Type 4 40cm rocket was developed in the final stages of World War II by the Imperial Japanese Army Technical Bureau, as a relatively low-cost, easy to produce weapon, which had an advantage of greater accuracy over conventional mortars in that it fired a spin-stabilized projectile. Due to its ease of construction, it was produced in limited numbers and distributed to hidden arsenals for use as last-ditch weapons during the projected Allied invasion of the Japanese home islands. Unlike the Japanese Type 4 20cm rocket mortar, the Type 4 40cm rocket did not see action and stocks were confined to the mainland.[4]
The Type 4 40cm rocket was restricted to launch via standardized fixed wooden troughs which were largely constructed by Japanese Army garrison toops, and not steel tubes like the Type 4 20cm rocket mortar. During 1945 construction of the fixed wooden launchers outpaced actual production of the Type 4 40cm rocket. Range of the Type 4 40cm rocket was controlled via variable bleeding of the propellant gases.[5][6][7]
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