Post War Trials of German KC N/a
Did the Germans produce a 600-lbs KC plate? If not what is the closest comparable plate thickness?
I came across a document that summarizes post-WWII USN and RN trials of German KC N/a armor. Armour Technical Committee, 22-July 1948 (I’ll call it the ATC report as I don't know the exact title).
Part of the information provided in ATC report is a summary table of limit velocities for both German & British cemented armor. The table includes snippets from the RN test report of the Tirpitz belt armor (this report has been discussed on this forum in the past). The limit velocities shown in the ATC report are identical to the Tirpitz firing trials report. However in the ATC report the armor thicknesses presented are in terms of British nomenclature. In other words, only the areal weight of the plates being tested is referenced.
In the ATC document the Tirpitz Armor is compared to British 520-lbs cemented armor. British 520-lbs Cemented works out to be a thickness of about 12.72” – or I suppose a nominal thickness of 12.75”(?). On the other hand the original Admiralty Report on the Tirpitz Belt armor testing indicates the German plate thickness was a uniform 12.5”.
It looks like the design thickness of the Tirpitz belt armor was about 320mm. This works out to be about 12.6” thickness. But the British measurements suggest that the as-built thickness of the Tirpitz belt plates was more like 12.5".
To cut to the chase...Additional post war trials were also being conducted with thicker German KC armor by the RN & USN. The ATC report shows a summary of RN comparisons of their 600-lbs Cemented to comparable German KC armor. As with the ATC's Tirpitz summary, the only dimensional reference to either German or British plate thickness is the 600-lbs areal weight. This suggests a thickness of the British Plate of about 14.7”. What is the closest comparable KC plate thickness produced by the Germans? 14.7” is about 373mm. Can I take this to mean the German plate being tested was actually 370mm; or was this perhaps a 360mm plate (a 579-lbs plate), or perhaps a 380mm plate (611-lbs plate)? In other words, did the Germans produce a 600-lbs KC plate? If they didn’t, what might be the closest matching German plate thickness to the British 600-lbs plate?
Thanks for any answers to my questions
Marty