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From: hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: battleships
Message-ID: <1991Feb22.231356.3302@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 22 Feb 91 23:13:56 GMT
References: <1991Feb13.220636.4720@cbnews.att.com> <1991Feb19.031700.16527@cbnews.att.com>
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From: hhm@ihlpy.att.com (Herschel H Mayo)

> 
> Just using HE, rather than armor-piercing, ammo eases things on the
> gun a great deal.  Seeing as there's no armor around to pierce,

Quite to the contrary, I suspect that they are using armor piercing
shells. After the invasion of Tarawa (I think) the Navy wondered why
so many Japanese troops were able to survive after the island had been
drenched with bombs and shell fire. They surveyed the Japanese bunkers,
and built identical replicas of them for ballistic tests. Much to the
horror of the researchers, they discovered that sand has an astounding
ability to absorb shock, leaving the defenders in the bunkers unharmed.
Further tests showed that armor piercing rockets and shells could cut
through the sand and explode beneath the ground causing far more damage
to enemy positions.  I presume that this fact has not been forgotten.

                                            Larry


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