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Shell (projectile)
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===Armour-piercing shells=== {{main|armour-piercing shell}} With the introduction of the first [[ironclad]]s in the 1850s and 1860s, it became clear that shells had to be designed to effectively pierce the ship armour. A series of British tests in 1863 demonstrated that the way forward lay with high-velocity lighter shells. The first [[armor-piercing shot and shell|pointed armour-piercing shell]] was introduced by Major Palliser in 1863. Approved in 1867, [[Palliser shot and shell]] was an improvement over the ordinary elongated shot of the time. Palliser shot was made of [[cast iron]], the head being chilled in casting to harden it, using composite molds with a metal, water cooled portion for the head.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://members.lycos.co.uk/Juan39/THE_HUASCAR.html|title=Build a Free Website with Web Hosting β Tripod|website=members.lycos.co.uk|access-date=15 June 2014|archive-date=20 March 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080320054041/http://members.lycos.co.uk/Juan39/THE_HUASCAR.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Britain also deployed Palliser shells in the 1870sβ1880s. In the shell, the cavity was slightly larger than in the shot and was filled with 1.5% gunpowder instead of being empty, to provide a small explosive effect after penetrating armour plating. The shell was correspondingly slightly longer than the shot to compensate for the lighter cavity. The powder filling was ignited by the shock of impact and hence did not require a fuze.<ref name="ToA1887">"[[Treatise on Ammunition]]", 4th Edition 1887, pp. 203β205.</ref> However, ship armour rapidly improved during the 1880s and 1890s, and it was realised that explosive shells with [[steel]] had advantages including better fragmentation and resistance to the stresses of firing. These were cast and forged steel.<ref name="Hogg pg 165 - 166" /> AP shells containing an explosive filling were initially distinguished from their non-HE counterparts by being called a "shell" as opposed to "shot". By the time of the Second World War, AP shells with a [[bursting charge]] were sometimes distinguished by appending the suffix "HE". At the beginning of the war, APHE was common{{Citation needed|date=November 2023}} in [[anti-tank]] shells of 75 mm caliber and larger due to the similarity with the much larger naval armour piercing shells already in common use. As the war progressed, ordnance design evolved so that the bursting charges in APHE became ever smaller to non-existent, especially in smaller caliber shells, e.g. [[Panzergranate 39]] with only 0.2% HE filling. ====Types of armour-piercing ammunition==== * Solid shell ("shot") - a solid penetrator that uses only initial impact energy to penetrate armour ** [[Armour-piercing shell|Armour-piercing]] (AP) ** [[Armour-piercing ballistic capped]] (APBC) - a shot with a cover to improve aerodynamics ** [[Armour-piercing capped]] (APC) ** [[Armour-piercing, capped, ballistic capped shell|Armour-piercing capped ballistic capped]] (APCBC) ** [[Armour-piercing ammunition#APCR/HVAP|Armour-piercing composite rigid]] (APCR), also known as High-Velocity Armour-Piercing (HVAP) ** [[Armour-piercing ammunition#APCNR / APSV|Armour-piercing composite non-rigid]] (APCNR), also known as Armour-Piercing Super-Velocity (APSV) - [[Squeeze bore|fired from a tapering barrel]] ** [[Armour-piercing discarding sabot]] (APDS) ** [[Armour-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot]] (APFSDS) * Hard shell with explosives β a mostly solid shell with an explosive element that detonates, after the shell has penetrated the armour using its impact velocity ** [[Armour-piercing ammunition#APHE / SAPHE|Armour-piercing high-explosive]] (APHE) ** Armour-piercing high-explosive tracer (APHE-T) - an APHE with tracer in base ** Semi-armour-piercing ([[Glossary of British ordnance terms#S.A.P.|SAP]]) **Semi-armour-piercing high-explosive (SAPHE) ** [[Semi-armor piercing high explosive incendiary|Semi-armour-piercing high-explosive incendiary]] (SAPHEI) ** Semi-armour-piercing high-explosive incendiary tracer (SAPHEI-T) * Indirect-penetration shell β a shell with a mechanism that is triggered upon impact to cause damage behind armour ** [[High-explosive anti-tank warhead|High-explosive anti-tank]] (HEAT) ** [[High-explosive squash head]] (HESH), also known as High-explosive plastic/plasticized (HEP)
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