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Post subject: Why SAP Bombs?
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I'm currently reading Shattered Sword by Parshall and Tully. From this and other reading, I'm aware that the Japanese sent dive-bombers out on strikes with a mixture of ordinance (HE, AP, SAP), even if on an anti-shipping mission.
But what is the point of semi-armor piercing? Are there advantages? Why not just take high-explosive or armor-piercing?
Assume we're talking about Vals in this case.
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 Wed Oct 07, 2009 12:43 am |
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Caesar Americanus II Munchkin Wrangler
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HE= for destroyers. AP= for battleships. SAP=why waste good BB-busters to overkill on cruisers?
If HE's too little, and full AP is too much, that's where SAP comes in, just like Goldilocks's ill-gotten porridge. lol
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| Wed Oct 07, 2009 12:51 am |
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| Diamondback wrote: | HE= for destroyers. AP= for battleships. SAP=why waste good BB-busters to overkill on cruisers?
If HE's too little, and full AP is too much, that's where SAP comes in, just like Goldilocks's ill-gotten porridge. lol |
As in AP would go clean through the destroyer and out the other side without actually detonating?
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| Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:43 am |
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Caesar Americanus II Munchkin Wrangler
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Possibly... if the fuse is set to delay after dropping into a BB's magazine, it may punch in the DD's deck and out her keel. Might kill her by flooding, but even if it goes off and tears the tin-can in half you're wasting good steel and boomstuff better held for in case Yamato's just over the horizon and coming to play...
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| Wed Oct 07, 2009 1:48 am |
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Nerd on the Prairie
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I think the Battle off Samar proved that an AP shell could pass clean through a Tin Can or Kaiser Coffin without detonating.
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| Wed Oct 07, 2009 2:44 am |
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HE bombs and shells will also do more damage to a destroyer than an AP projectile of the same caliber.
SAP is for ships like cruisers and carriers, I presume. They'll do more damage than an AP to a ship without battleship armor.
Another possibility is that the HE and SAP bombs would be used on battleships, by the dive bombers assigned to destroy the target's AA guns. |
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| Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:52 pm |
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| dracos42 wrote: | HE bombs and shells will also do more damage to a destroyer than an AP projectile of the same caliber.
SAP is for ships like cruisers and carriers, I presume. They'll do more damage than an AP to a ship without battleship armor.
Another possibility is that the HE and SAP bombs would be used on battleships, by the dive bombers assigned to destroy the target's AA guns. |
Okay, that seems to make sense--armor-piercing qualities without necessarily sacrificing all the benefits of HE.
On the last point: This is what I have read in more than a few places. I guess in each flight (I forget the Japanese designation), several planes would be armed with what they termed "land bombs" to kill AA crews. The rest of the dive bombers, of course, would be armed with SAP bombs. I'll have to re-read the intelligence write-up the U.S. did on Japanese bombs again. Their designations constantly confuse me.
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| Sat Oct 17, 2009 10:23 pm |
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All bombs and shells are a trade-off of effects. An H.E. may burst on contact on an armoured target and cause little damage while an A.P. can pass clean through an unarmoured target and may not even detonate at all. SAP is an attempt to bridge the gap and create an 'all-purpose' round.
The Royal Navy used a 4.7-inch SAP (semi-armour piercing) shell at the Battle of Narvik in 1940. The fuse was less sensitive than an H.E, more sensitive than A.P.
Crucially the shell's casing was thicker than a traditional H.E. round (less explosive) and created larger and heavier splinters further inside the target.
The German 5-inch H.E. was bursting on contact and creating large holes in surface plating and small splinters but the British 4.7-inch round was ripping the German DDs up inside, something which most destroyers were vulnerable to since WW1.
The practical upshot was a lot of damaged German DDs which were then finished off a few days later by HMS Warspite and a party of escorting destroyers.
SAP can be a very useful round.
In the case of air attack if you are not sure which type of target you will eventually be attacking then either load a mix of H.E. and A.P. (clumsy) or choose a standard load of all SAP. SAP can be seen as a good choice for most targets.
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Last edited by 'Warspite' on Fri Oct 23, 2009 10:45 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| Mon Oct 19, 2009 12:50 am |
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Thanks, all, for the replies. Makes sense now!
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| Fri Oct 23, 2009 4:06 am |
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