A nasty feature of the battlecruiser Tiger

I usually imagine that the British battlecruiser Tiger was well-protected, but that is not really true. There was a patch of 9in armor, but only the machinery spaces were covered. Over substantial areas of the side, supposedly protected the 13.5in gun magazines, there was only 5in armor. Deck armor was generally just 1in, although there were two 1in decks. Given that the Tiger survived quite nicely, that says that you don't need that thick of armor to adequately protect against 11in and 12in gunfire. You may have penetrations, but unless they flashed Cordite, they would not be serious. The violent explosions were not caused by magazine hits, but by turret hits that ignited Cordite dust from incautious handling practices. The careless practices only were a problem because of the volatile nature of Cordite. As late as 1942, the Mutsu was lost due to a Cordite explosion, while at anchor.