15.5cm/60mm Naval gun

[DOCUP]

I was looking around and saw that this gun has a penetration of 231mm for a 6in naval gun. Is this correct?

[Cavalry Corp]

Stock and my mod say 222 - yes, ( there is a CD gun of it as well) it seems high, but only slightly higher than US guns at around 200, and much higher than UK guns, around 120 . lower ROF as well, but the shell is quite a bit heavier. Most info suggests it was a good gun.

cav

[jmolyson]

When examining armor penetration for a particular gun, one has to consider:

age and wear of the gun barrel
age and source of propellant
crew proficiency
atmospheric conditions affecting trajectory and atmospheric friction on projectile
age, oxidation, location, slant and chemical composition of armor being penetrated
impact angle
and other factors

Therefore, variance of a few millimeters is not to be unexpected. Of course, reliability of the primary source is also an issue. I wouldn't let this detract from enjoying the game.

Joe Molyson

[PaxMondo]

Note that this isn't just a 6" gun, it is 15.5cm / 60L gun. Cleveland class was armed with 6"/47 mark 16 guns, significantly different. You would expect a 60L gun compared to a 47L gun to have higher velocity, thus greater range and higher penetration.

Data from www.navweaps/com:

USN 6L47 mark 16 .jpg (170.62 KiB) Viewed 75 times

IJN 15.5L60.jpg (74.58 KiB) Viewed 75 times

relevant 15.5L60 footnotes to share from the source:
It is reported in US Naval Technical Mission to Japan report O-19 that AP Type 91 projectiles for these guns had not been in production since about 1935 as the conversion of the Mogami class cruisers had left large stocks on hand.

Point being here that the ammo was 10 years old when tested in O-19. In 1941, had it been used it would have been only 6 years old. And if a ship was actually using it, like in WitPAE, it would likely have had to go back into production, so ships would have been using fresh ammo.