WONDER SHELL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 91, 17 April 1936, Page 7

WONDER SHELL.

BRITISH PRODUCT.

Penetrates 12in Armourplate

Unbroken,

RUSH IN MANUFACTURE,

(Received 10.30 a.m.) LONDON, April 16.

"The latest type of naval 16in shells travel at a speed of about 1200 miles an hour, and after passing through 12in armourplate are recovered unbroken," said Sir Robert Hadfield at the annual meeting of Hadfields, Limited, Sheffield.

He added that one such shell in the region of a magazine would probably destroy an enemy battleship.

Supplies were rapidly being turned out to meet the present urgent demand.

At the Battle of Jutland the British naval authorities discovered that the fault in the shells they were using was that they exploded prematurely instead of penetrating the armour sheathing of enemy ships and exploding inside. Ever since then munition manufacturers have been trying to find a sneit that will pass through the thickest and toughest armour plate and explode in tne tiowels of the ship, destroying her engines and boilers. Progress alone this line of experiment has been slow, as the same manufacturers have simultaneously been inventing new types of toughened steel to withstand 6hellfire.

An artillery officer stated this morning that Hadfields, Ltd., had been playing a sort of game of patience in designing armour-piercing shells and then producing shell-resisting armour-plate. Sir Robert Hadfield's announcement could be taken to mean that, for the time being, the designer of shells had beaten the designer of armour-plate, and such a shell would naturally be in demand because, unless an armour-plate capable of resisting it could be produced the gunner would beat the naval architect; in other words, the greatest battleships afloat would be vulnerable to artillery fire. It was pointed out, however, that the vitals of big battleships were protected by more than twelve inches of armour-plating.