JWE
Matrix Legion of Merit

Posts: 6580
Joined: 7/19/2005 Status: offline
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Hi anarchy. Been looking, and found that just about any naval rifle, including the short 3”, had quite sufficient muzzle velocity, and were provided with appropriate ammunition (SAP and the like), to routinely penetrate a submarine pressure hull at all nominal engagement ranges. Even merchant ship armament was quite sufficient in this regard. Just about all naval vessel load-outs were mostly SAP, with some small % HE early, and then, when AA got important, up to 40% AA, depending on warship mission. An AA shell wouldn’t do it because its primary burn is deflagration, but HE certainly could. The detonation front would stress the pre-stressed hull material locally. Bad news, not to mention spall. I’ll bet that there were way more subs that should be counted in the gunfire column; you know, get whacked, dive, implode, and who’s to know. Yeah, basically, you got a naval gun, you can sink a sub.
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