Poking holes below the waterline

[kenijaru]

Originally Posted by JCB

Since HE rounds are supposed to detonate upon impact, wouldn´t the shells explode upon impact with the water (on its way to hit below the waterline) detonating harmlessly meters away from the hull....
Maybe the AP rounds, being made for penetration rather than fragmentation, will serve my needs better?

what you say makes sense, makes a lot of sense

but if you hill the side of a merchant with AP, the shell will probably slip through the ship like a hot knife through warm butter and explode harmlessly in the air or water. (thats the same problem argentine pilots had in the malvinas/falklands, the bomb fuse was delayed to protect the airplane from the blast but that made the bombs go through the british destroyers, with some "lucky" exeptions.)*

HE shells arent ment to throw sharpnel, but to open big holes on whatever they touch, the actual sharpnel they throw is a secondary effect (or an evolutionary leftover, like our coxis or apendix) :hmm: anyhow, you dont need sharpnel as you are not trying to kill the crew.

just shoot with HE and then use external camera to make sure you are leaving holes on the bugger.


*please, lets not start a discusion about that, specialy not here, it was just an example that poped into my head.