[Glossary](/glossary.md)/[Gunnery](/glossary/category/gunnery.md)

# HESH

A high explosive variant with much higher nominal penetration, which behaves like HE when it fails to penetrate.

Also known as high explosive squash head.

HESH keeps the explosive behaviour of [HE](/glossary/high-explosive.md) and adds enough [penetration](/glossary/penetration.md) to punch through moderate [armor](/glossary/armor-thickness.md) outright, where it deals full damage rather than a reduced blast amount.

Against thick or well-angled armor it falls back to being an expensive HE [round](/glossary/shell.md), and against [spaced armor](/glossary/spaced-armor.md) it is stopped like any other explosive shell, so it is a situational premium round rather than a universal one.

## Related terms

[High explosiveA shell that explodes on contact, dealing reduced damage through armor it cannot penetrate and splashing everything nearby.](/glossary/high-explosive.md)[Premium ammunitionThe higher-penetration round available on nearly every gun, bought with credits and named after the days when it cost gold.](/glossary/premium-ammo.md)[Spaced armorA thin plate mounted away from the hull, which strips explosive and shaped-charge shells before they reach the real armor.](/glossary/spaced-armor.md)

[Every World of Tanks term](/glossary.md)

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