Real armour penetration
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Karl Heidenreich
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Real armour penetration
A lot has been said about which gun could penetrate some or other armour using some nice formulas, but... in reality, actual event: which had been the results of high caliber guns fired upon real armour in real combat: Schanhorst, Warspite, Bismarck, PoW, which?
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Karl Heidenreich
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- Joined: Thu Jan 12, 2006 3:19 pm
- Location: San José, Costa Rica
I only know of a few cases.
South Dakota was hit repeatedly by Japanese shells at Guadalcanal. One 14" shell detonated on impact with turret 3 barbette, blowing a 3' x 10' hole in the deck area and gouging two gun sleeves. The turret was not put out of action. One 8" shell penetrated approx 8" into the main belt armor. We know the range was about 8 to 10 kyds in this engagement. There was a lot of damage and crew casualties in unarmored areas.
In the above engagement we know Hiei was wrecked by multiple 5" and 16" shell hits, but we don't have any details to speak of.
One of Bismarck's survivors reported light streaming though holes in Bismarck's armored conning tower when he was there for a time during the final battle.
Witnesses reported a shell penetrating the front of one of Bismarck's forward turrets and blowing the back plate of the turret overboard. Study of the wreck shows a penetration of "C" turret barbette. One of Rodney's shells hit Bismarcks forecastle and put at least one forward turret out of action. That isn't too surprising since the ends of her citadel weren't all that well protected, similar to many other battleships.
Survivors reported shells exploding in a couple of her engineering spaces, and many shells exploding in the area above her lower armored deck.
We know one of PoW's shells put one of Bismarck's boiler rooms and a turbo generator room out of action.
The heavy cruiser USS San Francisco was hit repeatedly by 14" and smaller shells at the first battle of Guadalcanal, but the Japanese were using bombardment ammunition and her more heavily armored areas weren't penetrated. There were a lot of casualties among exposed crew, but the main armament remained in action and the ship continued to fight.
Unfortunately, most ships with heavy shell penetrations didn't survive to be studied. I'm sure there are others I've left out.
South Dakota was hit repeatedly by Japanese shells at Guadalcanal. One 14" shell detonated on impact with turret 3 barbette, blowing a 3' x 10' hole in the deck area and gouging two gun sleeves. The turret was not put out of action. One 8" shell penetrated approx 8" into the main belt armor. We know the range was about 8 to 10 kyds in this engagement. There was a lot of damage and crew casualties in unarmored areas.
In the above engagement we know Hiei was wrecked by multiple 5" and 16" shell hits, but we don't have any details to speak of.
One of Bismarck's survivors reported light streaming though holes in Bismarck's armored conning tower when he was there for a time during the final battle.
Witnesses reported a shell penetrating the front of one of Bismarck's forward turrets and blowing the back plate of the turret overboard. Study of the wreck shows a penetration of "C" turret barbette. One of Rodney's shells hit Bismarcks forecastle and put at least one forward turret out of action. That isn't too surprising since the ends of her citadel weren't all that well protected, similar to many other battleships.
Survivors reported shells exploding in a couple of her engineering spaces, and many shells exploding in the area above her lower armored deck.
We know one of PoW's shells put one of Bismarck's boiler rooms and a turbo generator room out of action.
The heavy cruiser USS San Francisco was hit repeatedly by 14" and smaller shells at the first battle of Guadalcanal, but the Japanese were using bombardment ammunition and her more heavily armored areas weren't penetrated. There were a lot of casualties among exposed crew, but the main armament remained in action and the ship continued to fight.
Unfortunately, most ships with heavy shell penetrations didn't survive to be studied. I'm sure there are others I've left out.
Re: Real armour penetration
IIRC, from reading Campbell, the maximum armour penetrated by the RN at Jutland was 12" and for the HSF, it was 9". Unfortunately in WW2, any BB/BC that probably suffered a penetration of vertical armour was also sunk.Karl Heidenreich wrote:A lot has been said about which gun could penetrate some or other armour using some nice formulas, but... in reality, actual event: which had been the results of high caliber guns fired upon real armour in real combat: Schanhorst, Warspite, Bismarck, PoW, which?
Of the five shells that hit Jean Bart, two, perhaps three, failed to explode. The two that exploded hit in the "nothing" sections of an "all or nothing" designed battleship. These two wrecked large parts of the ship, but parts that contained no vital equipmentlwd wrote:Did the 16" round that ended up in Jean Barts (fortunatly empty) secondary magazine go high order? Didn't at least one other round get into what would have been vital areas had she been at sea?
One shell penetrated the armored deck and exploded normally in an empty ammo space. One shell penetrated the protective deck over the steering gear and exploded, sending splinters out through the ship's bottom. One shell hit the edge of a barbette, had its base broken (probably due to base slap), continued to the armor deck and still managed to put a 4in dent in the 6in plating, and rattled is way quite a distance through the hull. One glanced off the side armor of the turret, obliterated a 3.5in gun, struck the 6in barbette cap beneath which was the barbette itself, and ricocheted into Casablanca; whether it broke due to base slap on the turret armor or due to striking the super-caliber barbette armor, I don't know. One shell passed through some "nothing" and barely nipped the top edge of the belt on its way out of the ship; it's not known whether or not it exploded.
i don't know what to think now!Netmarine.net, with a complete history of the ship and the delaited figh against BB59, does not speak about one shell exploding in a an empty ammo magazine.
http://www.netmarine.net/bat/croiseur/j ... stoire.htm
This website do the same:
http://polyticks.com/bbma/jeanbart.htm
This one speak about an "empty magazine".
http://www.internet-esq.com/ussaugusta/photos/bart.htm
If a shell penetrated in a magazine, i think it was an AA one, but not the in the armored citadel, for the triple 6 inch gun.
