Partial Penetrations: What does this mean in game/real world terms?

[malfuriouspete]

If my memory serves me correctly, the game manual says that partials happen when shells penetrate 15% past the armor...thickness was it? I can't remember that part but what exactly does this mean? Like the shell is embedded in the armor or something or it actually makes its way into the tank but doesn't explode? Was does a partial penetration mean for the crew of a tank?

I'm a bit confused as I've seen partials knock out tanks as well as full penetrations not doing anything. I'm assuming the full penetrations are more deadly to tanks but how can a partial knock out a tank?

[Sergei]

Here's a 17pdr AP round that has partially penetrated a Tiger's armour plate.

It doesn't have to look that dramatic, but the principle is that a puncture has been created but the grenade hasn't gone through completely. Some metal splinters/spalling would be flying around and causing minor or bigger injuries if any crew member is in the way. If it fully penetrated, it would rip even bigger chunks off the armour and make them ricochet around the insides.

[dieseltaylor]

Even non-penetrating hits can knock metal and bolts etc around the inside of a turret killing and maiming crew. I suspect that any crew that loses 2 crew members bails as they can no longer fight the tank.

[Der Alte Fritz]

This was the major problem with First World War tanks. Even machine gun fire hitting the outside of the tank would cause minute hot metal fragments to enter the tank via small gaps in the armour, vision ports, gun ports, etc. The tank crews sometimes wore chain mail face visors hanging from their helmets in an effort to avoid being hit in the face by these splinters.

For a time around 1942 Russian tanks were made with lower quality steel which meant when they were hit, even if the round did not penetrate, fragments of armour plate or spall would fly off the inside face of the plate and hurtle around inside the tank injuring crew members. British Len Lease tanks such as the Matilda were appreciated because their armour did not do this. As the supply situation improved Russian armour improved in quality to its pre-war norms.