Deck gun

[Henry_pl]

Originally Posted by jaxa

Does uboat really have no AP ammo for deck gun?
It seems to me I've read somewhere that uboats had AP ammo (maybe Hitler's U-boat War ?).

I may be wrong, but...

The idea of AP shell is to penetrate an armor and kill the crew inside...
...a TANK, not a ship

AP shell makes a hole not much bigger than the caliber of itself.
AP shell uses its cinetic energy to penetrate the armor.

Merchant ships didn't have armor, also their hull wasn't very thick- so high-energy shells were not that important.

High Explosive shell could do much more damage- imagine blowing a petard close to a sheet of cardboard.