Talk:Nelson/@comment-35703536-20180912163448/@comment-47.198.25.132-20180913021537

Did Britain ever really adopt a "high-velocity waterline attack" doctrine? Generally, British shells were of a lower velocity than it's European peers, for example, Warspite and Vangaurd had low-velocity 42 caliber guns, and the KGVs fired heavier, slower shells than equivalent American 14 gun battleships. Iowa's 16 inchers fired shells that were 30% heavier than Warspites at a higher velocity. Britain also wanted to adopt heavier, lower velocity shells for the Lion-class battleships, in contrast to the Nelsons. "High velocity waterline attack" was more of a continental thing. To my knowledge, the Nelsons were the only British battleships that even attempted such a thing by adopting lighter weight shells than their American and Japanese peers, but even then, their shells didn't have much better belt penetration at all at the cost of much lower deck penetration, which is probably why they turned away from the idea.