Ammunitions
The 36 cm/45 Type 41 is a Japanese 356 mm naval cannon commonly found on many of the nation’s battleships. It is a highly capable primary gun, often able to eliminate enemy destroyers or light cruisers with a single broadside. It also offers a wide selection of ammunition and a few slightly different turret designs.
French 203 mm/50 model 1924 was used by the French heavy cruisers during the Second World War, most notably Colbert and Dupleix. It came equipped with SAP and HE shells, with the latter having a very large explosive filler compared to the SAP shell but poor penetration, while the former having just slightly larger explosive filler than SAP but offering a contact fuse, which might be preferable under some circumstances. Lacking a dedicated AP shell, it struggles to deal with heavily armoured cruisers.
In this guide is about the 7,5 cm KwK and StuK 37 L/24 (as well as modernized K.51). The gun was a prewar development of a compremise of firepower to size. Duo to its size and weight, as well as ammo development put it in a role of multipurpose on a great amount of different vehicles, used prewar till the very end.
Contrary to public belief, the 330 mm OPf Mle 1935 shell was not classified as a Semi-Armor Piercing type of ammunition. Historically, the Dunkerque class was designed to counter ships like the Graf Spee, which were lightly armored compared to other capital ships. One theory suggests that the 330 mm OPf shell was designed as SAP to fulfill this purpose. There are currently two claims that attempt to support the classification of the 330 mm OPf shell as SAP: the burster cavity was too large and the hardened cap was too thin compared to typical AP shells. However, additional historical and technical context disproves these claims and instead suggests that the 330 mm OPf shell was designed as AP. The historical context will be first established before addressing each of these claims.
The Mauser 20 mm MG 151/20 is a German 20 mm aircraft cannon converted from the 15 mm MG 151/15 cannon to a 20 mm after combat evaluation proved a larger high-explosive shell to be more effective than a high-velocity shell.
