Logo from Scott Cunningham.

Types of Ammunition

Introduction to Types of Ammunition

t the beginning of World War II the thickness of armour was relatively small and could be severely overmatched by reasonably small weapons. The natural tendency was to develop simple projectiles as there was no need for anything more complicated. The war led to a rapid increase in armour thickness and the demand for armour piercing projectiles to defeat it. Developments from existing Naval armour piercing technology were used by all countries. In Britain and Germany however new ideas were researched, one of which became the primary tank gun ammunition in recent times. All modern anti-tank projectiles have their roots in World War II.

The pages in this article are:

• This Introduction.
• Before the Tank.
• Early Armour Piercing Projectiles.
• Piercing Caps.
• HE filler inside AP, APC, APBC & APCBC.
• Sub-calibre Ammunition:
  • Part 1 General Design
  • Part 2 APCR
  • Part 3 APCNR
  • Part 4 APDS
  • Part 5 Post-War Developments
• Shaped Charge Ammunition:
  • Part 1 General Design.
  • Part 2 The Stick Bomb.
  • Part 3 Effective Range.
  • Part 4 Post-War Developments.
• HESH, An Alternative to HEAT?
• Anti-Personnel Ammunition.
• Works Cited by this Article.

Special thanks goes to Robert Livingston who provided most of the information on piercing caps in a series of e-mails to me. Information on modern ammunition and the general design of shaped charges and sub-calibre ammunition comes mostly from Richard M. Ogorkiewicz’ Technology of Tanks. Andrew Jaremkow reviewed a first draft of this article and provided more information, and some corrections, for the pages dealing with modern ammunition. These and other sources used are cited in the endnotes.

Before the Tank

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