Partial Penatration...

[HeinzBaby]

Spoiler alert

Was playing US in 'Line of Defence', having a ball, was like clubbing baby seals...Until a Bloody Tiger showed up and put the frightners into everyone.

To cut it short, three of my Shermans managed to get around to the flank and rear at about 150-200yds if memory serves me? and started a hailstorm of fire into the beast.

Tiger has Rear and side armour 82mm/0 so I thought there was a good chance of killing it. The Tiger crew bailed after a torrent of 'partial penatrations', so in CM terms what sort of damage is this doing, compared to 'internal flaking' and 'ricocheting'?

...My guess, its purely a morale thing, the crew receiving this are yelling..'get the hellout' before one actually comes through the door...Anyone care to put their two bobs worth in?

BTW the Tiger KO'ed a TD and a Sherman before abandonment..

[Siege]

Normally a "partial penetration" means something along the line that the round just barely penetrates the armor, but not enough to do anything significant. Like the old APC joke of "it didn't pierce the armor, it just came in one side and rattled around a bit".

Still, even the best crews can only stand so many enemy 75mm AP shells littering the floor of their tank before they decide to leave.

-Hans

[Yaba]

I am far from an expert on it but I do believe that a partial penetration can be quite damaging. If you take a look at a cut away picture of a tank you will see that there is very little spare room on the inside. A partial penetraion could still cut the electrical, jam the turret or even crack something in the engine.

Just my two bits...

[Michael Emrys]

A partial penetration might also spray droplets of molten metal around the inside of the vehicle, which wouldn't feel nice if they landed on bare skin. Not to mention the problems they could cause if they found some oil or hydraulic fluid.

Michael

[Pawn]

I wonder what is sounds like in a tank that is being pounded with shell after shell.

[JasonC]

Partial pens are a lot more than flaking, and do a lot more than just frighten the crew. How much depends on the caliber of the round, as with all behind armor effects. (Even a full pen by 20mm rarely KOs a vehicle straight off). With typical main guns, like your US 75mm case, the difference between full and partial pens is roughly -

full pen - 60% KO, 20% damage, 20% nothing

partial pen - 20% KO, 20% damage, 60% nothing.

YMMV, as you will see plenty of "variance" from such chances.

Damage may mean immobilization on a hull hit, or gun damage on a turret hit, or loss of a crew member plus shock, or just loss of a crew member.

If you keep throwing in partial pens you will always kill the tank eventually. Usually one of them just "rolls" well enough and scores an outright KO. If you get several cases of damage in a row instead, the crew will typically bail (e.g. if already immobilized, another partial pen will make them bail unless it is "no significant damage").

Very small AP - ATRs e.g. - does about the partial pen level above even with full pens. Small to middling AP - 37mm, 40mm, 45mm e.g. - will do somewhat less than the above, but a full pen by those still does as much or more than a partial pen by bigger guns.

Partial pens can be frustrating when there are several invulnerable plates as well, because you sometimes miss, sometimes hit a plate you can't harm, and when you finally hit the vulnerable one you really want something to happen. It may take 3-5 of even the "effective" hits to "roll" good behind armor effect. But unless your shooter is going to die in the meantime, it is just a matter of time. If your gun can get a partial pen, the target will eventually be killed.