2,700 Pounds of Steel vs. the World's Thickest Armor #history #ww2 #militaryhistory

In October 1946, the US Navy conducted a series of ballistic tests at Dahlgren, Virginia, firing massive 2,700-pound 16-inch armor-piercing shells at a 26-inch-thick armor plate — the same specification used on the turret faces of the Yamato-class, the heaviest-armored battleships ever built. The plate itself had an extraordinary history: it was manufactured for the turret of the IJN Shinano, originally planned as a third Yamato-class battleship, but Shinano was converted into an aircraft carrier before completion and was sunk by a US submarine in 1944 — meaning this armor never actually protected a ship in combat. In the tests, a shell striking at nearly 2,000 feet per second completely penetrated the plate, snapping it in two and leaving behind a cracked, twisted mass of steel. A second shot days later punched through again despite only partially penetrating with its nose. The results demonstrated just how far postwar American ordnance had advanced — capable of defeating even the thickest naval armor ever constructed, on a ship that, in the end, never got the chance to put it to the test. #wwii #worldwarii #worldwar2 #history #historyfacts #historyshorts #historia #historical #ww2history #ww2facts #usnavy #yamato #shinano #battleship #navalhistory #armor #ballistics #militaryhistory #documentary #education #war #historylovers #fyp #edit #warthunder #phonk #memes #didyouknow