S.A.P.
Semi Armour-Piercing. Introduced after World War I as the successor to Common pointed shells for naval use. They had a heavy solid nose and a medium amount of TNT explosive, giving them the capability to penetrate steel superstructures and small thickness of armour. They were employed as the main shell for naval and coastal guns 8 inches and below in action against warships. Later shells were streamlined with the addition of a pointed ballistic cap, and were designated SAP/BC. In World War II they were typically painted olive green, with a red nose.
Read more about this topic: List Of British Ordnance Terms
Famous quotes containing the word sap:
“They felt the rush of the sap in the spring, they knew the wave which cannot halt, but every year throws forward the seed to begetting, and, falling back, leaves the unborn on the earth. They knew the intercourse between heaven and earth.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Think you, my lord, there is no sensation in being a tree? feeling the sap in one’s boughs, the breeze in one’s foliage?”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“a dance sacred as the sap in
the trees,”
—Archie Randolph Ammons (b. 1926)