while for the thicker plates the value gradually falls off to about 2·3 in the case of 12-in. armour. This figure of merit is as against uncapped armour-piercing shot of approximately the same calibre as the thickness of the plate. The resisting power of the non-cemented Krupp plates is usually regarded as being considerably less than that of the cemented plates, and may be taken on an average to be 2·25 times that of wrought iron.
Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are illustrations of good cemented plates of the Krupp type. Fig. 3 shows an 11·8-in. plate, tried by Messrs Krupp in 1895, after attack by three 12-in. steel armour-piercing projectiles of from 712·7 to 716·1 ℔ in weight. In the third round the striking velocity of the projectile was 1993 ft. per second, the calculated perforation of wrought iron by Tresidder’s formula being 25·9 in. The attack was successfully resisted, all the projectiles being broken up without effecting perforation, while there were no serious cracks. The figure of merit of the plate was thus well in excess of 2·2. The great toughness of the plate is perhaps even more remarkable than its hardness; its width was only 6·28 ft., so that each shot head formed a wedge of approximately one-sixth of its width. The excellence of the metal which is capable of withstanding such a strain is apparent.
Fig. 4 is of a 9-in. K.C. plate, made by Messrs Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. for the Japanese government, after undergoing an unusually severe official test. The fourth round was capable of perforating 22 in. of wrought iron, so that the figure of merit of the plate must have been considerably in excess of 2·45, as there were no through-cracks, and the limit of resistance was far from being reached.
Fig. 5 shows the front of an excellent 6-in. cemented plate of Messrs Beardmore’s manufacture, tried at Eskmeals on the 11th of October 1901. It withstood the attack of four armour-piercing 6-in. shot of 100 ℔ weight, with striking velocities varying from 1996 to 2177 ft. per second. Its limit of resistance was just passed by the fifth round in which the striking velocity was no less than 2261 ft. per second. The projectile, which broke up in passing through the plate, did not get through the skin plate behind the wood backing, and evidently had no surplus energy left. The figure of merit of this plate was between 2·6 and 2·8, but was evidently much closer to the latter than to the former figure. A sixth round fired with a Johnson capped shot weighing 105·9 ℔ easily perforated both plate and backing with a striking velocity of 1945 ft. per second, thus reducing the figure of merit of the plate to below 2·2 and illustrating very clearly the advantage given by capping the point of an armour-piercing projectile. There were no through-cracks in the plate after this severe trial, the back being evidently as tough as the face was hard.
Fig. 6 shows a 3-in. K.N.C. plate of Messrs Vickers, Sons & Maxim’s manufacture, tested privately by the firm in November 1905. It proved to be of unusual excellence, its limit of resistance being just reached by a 1212-℔ armour-piercing shell of 3 in. calibre with a striking velocity of 2558 ft. per second, a result which, even if the projectiles used were not relatively of the same perforating power as those used in the proof of 6-in. and thicker plates, shows that its resisting power was very great. At a low estimate its figure of merit against 3-in. A.P. shot may be taken as about 2·6, which is exceptionally high for a non-cemented, or indeed for any but the best K.C. plates.
The plate also withstood the attack of a 4·7-in. service pattern steel armour-piercing shell of 45 ℔ weight striking the unbacked portion with a velocity of 1599 ft. per second, and was only just beaten by a similar shell with a velocity of 1630 ft. per second. The effect of all the above-mentioned rounds is shown in the photograph. The same plate subsequently kept out two 6-in. common shell filled up to weight with salt and plugged, with striking velocities of 1412 and 1739 ft. per second respectively, the former being against the unbacked and the latter against the backed half of the plate,—the only effect on the plate being that round 6 caused a fragment of the right-hand top corner of the plate to break off, and round 7 started a few surface cracks between the points of impact of rounds 1, 2 and 3.
Within the limitations referred to below, the resisting power of all hard-faced plates is very much reduced when the armour-piercing projectiles used in the attack are capped, the average figure of merit of Krupp cemented plates not being more than 2 against capped shot as compared with about 2·5 against uncapped. So long ago as 1878 it was suggested by Lt.-Col. (then Captain) T. English, R.E., that armour-piercing projectiles would be assisted in attacking compound plates if caps of wrought iron could be fitted to their points. Experiments at Shoeburyness, however, did not show that any advantage was gained by this device, and nothing further was heard of the cap until 1894, when experiments carried out in Russia with so-called “magnetic” shot against plates of Harveyed steel showed that the perforating power of an armour-piercing projectile was considerably augmented where hard-faced plates were concerned, if its point were protected by a cap of wrought iron or mild steel. The conditions of the Russian results (and of subsequent trials in various parts of the world which have confirmed them) differed considerably from the earlier English ones. The material of both projectiles and plates differed, as did also the velocities employed—the low velocities in the earlier trials probably contributing in large measure to the non-success of the cap. The cap, as now used, consists of a thimble of comparatively soft steel of from 3 to 5% of the weight of the projectile, attached to the point of the latter either by solder or by being pressed hydraulically or otherwise into grooves or indentations in the head. Its function appears to be to support the point on impact, and so to enable it to get unbroken through the hard face layers of the plate. Once through the cemented portion with its point intact, a projectile which is strong enough to remain undeformed, will usually perforate the plate by a true boring action if its striking velocity be high enough. In the case of the uncapped projectile, on the other hand, the point is almost invariably crushed against the hard face and driven back as a wedge into the body of the projectile, which is thus set up so that, instead of boring, it acts as a punch and dislodges or tends to dislodge a coned plug or disk of metal, the greatest diameter of which may be as much as four times the calibre of the projectile. The disproportion between the maximum diameter of the disk and that of the projectile is particularly marked when the calibre of the latter is much in excess of the thickness of the plate. When plate and projectile are equally matched, e.g. 6″ versus 6″, the plug of metal dislodged may be roughly cylindrical in shape, and its diameter not greatly in excess of that of the projectile. In all cases the greatest width of the plug or disk is at the back of the plate.
A stout and rigid backing evidently assists a plate very much more against this class of attack than against the perforating attack of a capped shot. Fig. 7 shows the back of a 6-in. plate attacked in 1898, and affords an excellent illustration of the difference in action of capped and uncapped projectiles. In round 7 the star-shaped opening made by the point of a capped shot boring its way through is seen, while rounds 2, 3, 4 and 5 show disks of plate partially dislodged by uncapped projectiles. The perforating action of capped armour-piercing projectiles is even better shown in fig. 8, which shows a 250-mm. (9·8 in.) Krupp plate after attack by 150-mm. (5·9 in.) capped A.P. shot. In rounds 5 and 6 the projectiles, with striking velocities of 2302 and 2281 ft. per second, perforated. Round 7, with a striking velocity of 2244 ft. per second, just got its point through and rebounded, while round 8, with a striking velocity of 2232, lodged in the plate. In many cases a capped projectile punches out a plug, usually more or less cylindrical in shape and of about the same diameter as the projectile, from a plate, and does not defeat it by a true boring action. In such cases it will probably be found that the projectile has been broken up, and that only the head, set up and in a more or less crushed condition, has got through the plate. This peculiarity of action can best be accounted for by attributing either abnormal excellence to the plate or to that portion of it concerned—for plates sometimes vary considerably and are not of uniform hardness throughout,—or comparative inferiority to the projectile. Whichever way it may be, what has happened appears to be that after the cap has given the point sufficient support to get it through the very hard surface layers, the point has been flattened in the region of extreme hardness and toughness combined, which exists immediately behind the deeply carburized surface. The action from this point becomes a punching one, and the extra strain tends to break up the projectile, so that the latter gets through wholly or partially, in a broken condition, driving a plug of plate in front of it. At low striking velocities, probably in the neighbourhood of 1700 ft. per second, the cap fails to act, and no advantage is given by it to the shot. This is probably because the velocity is sufficiently low to give the cap time to expand and so fail to grip the point as the latter is forced into it. The cap also fails as a rule to benefit the projectile when the angle of incidence is more than 30° to the normal.
