Doctrine, range, and the shells actually available

Did navies differ doctrinally in when destroyers and cruisers used semi-armor-piercing or high-explosive ammunition?

Target type set the broad choice, but supply often governed destroyers while the larger doctrinal difference lay in engagement range and attritional strategy.

A destroyer might sail with the ammunition available at the depot even when doctrine prescribed a different mixture. In action, the rounds already in the ready-use supply could determine what was fired. Target type still mattered, with high explosive given as the natural bombardment choice, but the larger national differences lay in engagement range. British tactics are characterized as favoring closer action between smaller task groups, particularly when pre-radar identification was uncertain. American and Japanese long-range planning is contrasted with that approach as being more oriented toward mass fleet battles.