Semi-Armor Piercing Shells?

[destroyer67]

So, I frequently read up about the ridiculous armament of battleships, and how incredibly large and powerful their guns are. I began reading about the ammunition types, I saw the usual, High Explosive, Armor Piercing, and then I saw it, Semi-Armor Piercing shells. I tried to read about them and didn't get a straight answer. I assume they would be paired up with a high explosive charge to crack hulls. What is the purpose of a Semi-Armor Piercing shell? And were they even put into large use?   

[Enaris]

An SAP shell is an armor piercing (reinforced nose) round with a high explosive core.  Pretty much all naval rounds that were designed to penetrate heavy armor is going to be SAP.  It penetrates and goes BOOM.

[_Dreadnaught_]

An SAP shell is an armor piercing (reinforced nose) round with a high explosive core.  Pretty much all naval rounds that were designed to penetrate heavy armor is going to be SAP.  It penetrates and goes BOOM.

 

So it's just like ingame AP?

[Enaris]

 

So it's just like ingame AP?

 

As I just got my invite 5 minutes ago... I can't do any more than guess that it's the case.  

 

For instance, I know that the bombs carried by Dive Bombers to attack carriers are often called "AP" but are technically considered SAP, so that'd be my guess here.

[Macabe]

 

So it's just like ingame AP?

 

Pretty much. SAP in-game would likely be used for those ships that you always overpen.

[BnaditCorps]

 

So it's just like ingame AP?

 

yup

[Drakenred]

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/Gun_Data_p2.htm

 

usualy SAP was a smaller round

 

most conventional AP shot had a "Burster charge" in the base,

 

Incidentaly for the big guns in the US Navy, from best pen to worst pen (and smallest to largest HE capacity it was)

 

AP (some sources refer to them as APC  or CAP or AP-Caped) bascialy the cap was a flat plate designed to improve the penitration of the round.

Comon (usualy did not have a cap)

High Capacity or Sometimes HC instead of HE

 

 

[Thoddy]

Comparison of german 38 cm projectiles

weight all 800 kg identical ballistics

projectile-------------------explosive charge------%cap weight

L 4,4 APC ---------------------2.35%-----------------14%

L 4,4 HE base fuze(SAP)----4.1%-----------------8.7%

L 4,6 HE nose fuze------------8.0%

 

penetration capability of the L 4,4 HE base fuze approximately 70%-75% of the APC at the same impact condition

 

[Marine_Diesel]

 Was looking up the Scharnhorst and the 28 cm SK C/34 main gun and discovered this. Perhaps not all ships will have SAP shells?? Any news on this yet??

[crzyhawk]

Semi-AP generally is a delayed response fuze.  So it hits and triggers, but had a delay before it explodes.  That allows it to penetrate a bit (usually only thin armor, hence semi) before detonating inside.  It will have a bigger charge than a true AP projectile, hence more damage.  of course, if it fails to penetrate, it's just an HE round.

[Morat242]

AP (some sources refer to them as APC  or CAP or AP-Caped)

 

The reason that USN shells are called both AP or APC is that the USN during this period didn't call anything an AP shell unless it had an AP cap on it, which would make it technically APC. Really they're APCBC, because they all had ballistic caps on top of the AP caps. So the USN official designation "AP shell" = APC/APCBC. Basically the philosophy was, "if it's not optimized for armor penetration, it's not an AP shell".

 

Because US AP shells also had unusually low HE content (~1.5%) for greater penetration (because a smaller cavity for HE makes the shell harder for armor to break), after WW1 even an AP shell over 2% HE was considered "Special Common", not a true AP shell. In practice, the US only made one Special Common shell with a real AP cap, for the 8" Mark 15, because if you need a real AP cap, use a real AP shell.

[Aetreus]

SAP generally represented an idea of a shell's parameters, not a technical design or specification. All major-caliber AP used a HE filler and base fuse, SAP just (generally)represents shells that had relatively less penetration than an AP round of the same generation.