Naval S.A.P. Round -Armour Penetration

[verdenpark]

For the past few months, I have been gathering information on naval gun armour penetration, mostly from the Navweap website. This is in preparation for writing a set of naval wargaming rules to be used within our club. There is an absolute wealth of information on the large and medium guns, but not much for the smaller ones.

Can anyone help with penetration figures of S.A.P. rounds for guns 4.7" and under?

If not, does anyone know what the general rule for penetration of S.A.P.s is?

[Paul_G_Baker]

Hogg states that the term "Semi-AP" applies when the projectile is incapable of defeating its own diameter of plate at any fighting range, but is suitable for attacking lightly-armoured craft.

Hope this helps,

[LWD]

You'll also probably want to look into what the fuze delays on such rounds were.

[verdenpark]

Hogg states that the term "Semi-AP" applies when the projectile is incapable of defeating its own diameter of plate at any fighting range, but is suitable for attacking lightly-armoured craft.

Hope this helps,

Thanks for this. It gives me a starting point. What does Hogg define as "fighting range" though?

From memory the basic fuse delay for British H.E. shells was 250 milliseconds. According to the Navweap site, base fused H.E. could penetrate 0.2 x diameter of Homogenous, or 0.3 x diameter of Face Hardened plate, before the fuse triggered.

I cannot recall coming across a fuse time for A.P. or S.A.P.. I just assumed it would be the same. Will keep an eye out for it from now on.

[Paul_G_Baker]

What does Hogg define as "fighting range" though?

Unfortunately, he doesn't!

I would guess, though (bearing in mind that I am not an Artillerist!) that 'fighting range' covers everything from absolute point-blank to the maximum range of the gun concerned.

Try these links (found by Googling "Semi Armour Piercing"), there may be more past the first five results pages - but my connection is playing up atm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_ordnance_terms#S.A.P.

http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/006850.pdf

[Andy H]

You may want to try and contact Tony Williams the author who is a member of this site, his contact details and his website details are here:-
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=7870

From memory he's done some work on Naval munitions

Regards

Andy H

[LWD]

Have you looked here:
http://www.navweaps.com/index_nathan/Miscarmr.htm
There's some info on SAP projectiles at least in regards to decapping.
http://www.navweaps.com/index_nathan/Ge ... _Fuzes.pdf
has a fair amount of info on German fuzes.
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/Gun_Data_p2.htm
http://www.navweaps.com/index_tech/tech-020.htm

[verdenpark]

Sorry for the delay in relying. I have been going through the links you supplied. Interesting stuff. Especially the American report on the failure of the 24" Matador S.A.P. warheads. Thanks all. I will try and contact Mr. Williams to see if he can help.