Captured on the slope of the hillside is the Japan 150mm as gun of the Type-96. On modern maps, all four hills in this area of Shumshu Island have the same name – “Hill 171”.
The gun belonged to the 5th company and was part of the second artillery battalion of the Kurile fortress regiment of the 91st Infantry Division, the division commander Colonel Moto Sakaguchi. In total, the company had four guns of this type, two located on Shumshu and two on Paramushir Island, all of them were directed to Shumshu from the heavy artillery of the Shimonoseki fortress. During the landing of our landing party on the island of Shumshu, the gun in the photo fired on Soviet ships in the strait and on the coastal battery in the Lopatka (Kamchatka) metro station, produced only 61 rounds. Commander 150mm cannon Type 96 is Lieutenant Yoshitake Kunio (吉武邦 男).
This Japan 150mm as gun photographs from the personal collection of the participant of the Kurile landing operation Major Leonid Georgievich Raduzhanov.
Location: Shumshu Island, Kuril Islands, Japan
Date: August 1945