Talk:Type 3 Shell/@comment-99.238.120.96-20141102030201/@comment-210.195.229.129-20150109152210

It's not so much that the american planes were well armored (they were... but a direct hit from a sanshiki's submunition will pretty much go through even the thickest armor a warbird can carry, including the pilot's armored seat and back)

rather the IJN ships anti aircraft director and range finder for their AAA are pretty horrific... and the sanshiki are simply not sufficiently large in area of effect to cope with the poor range estimation of their anti aircraft system, without good range estimation... anti aircraft artillery is not much more than guess work..

for most of the war, USN aircraft never find IJN ships AAA to be particularly effective at anything other than being nuisance.... the fighter escorts... were far more lethal on the other hand.

given these shells low effectiveness during the war, and the deteriorating effect they have on the gun barrel, it's highly unlikely they'd use it on other main battery of the rest of the ships in IJN.