Bullethead
Storm Eagle Studios
Re: Jutland - the pictoral countdown
It wasn't just BB guns, but their cruiser guns as well. The concept actually originated in the 20s, and the 1st couple of batches of IJN Treaty Cruisers had like 80^ main gun elevation for AA work. The Brits did exactly the same thing, although AFAIK they used regular HE instead of the incendiary round the IJN developed. However, nobody could get it to work well enough to justify the cost and complexity of the high-elevation turrets, so later cruisers were limited to about 45^, which they needed by then for surface fire anyway. But the IJN kept the special AA shells in service and used them in WW2, although without much success according to US pilots.AFAIK, the Japanese designed and used anti-aircraft shells for battleship's main guns, although from what I have read it seems that these shels were used sparsely because firing them meant excessive wear of the barrels.