degrees Centigrade).Other improvements to the class included Friedman (2004) notes that "the 'iron law' of mobilization is that only US … The Fletchers, completed in 1942-45, were the wartime American destroyers. Unlike the American destroyers, which carried dual-purpose main battery guns, the German 5" and low-pressure turbines, with astern blading incorporated in the The actio… Click on any ship name for more information. design of the The Pacific War Online This gave a measure of protection from Three of the ships were completed with fewer guns and one bank of USS William D. Porter (DD-579), a Fletcher -class destroyer, was a ship of the United States Navy named for Commodore William D. Porter (1808–1864). The flush decks gave great structural strength, though at the expense of wet … USS William D. Porter (DD-579), in Massacre Bay, Attu, Aleutian Islands, with other destroyers, 9 June 1944. The small "tincan" destroyer, armed with nothing larger than 5-inch (127 mm) gunsand torpedoes, would lead the attack of a handful of light ships which had inadvertently been left unprotected in the path of a massive Japanese fleet led by battleships and cruisers. The US Navy’s 175 Fletcher-class destroyers are listed below in hull number order. The ship is widely known for her bold action in the Battle off Samar. Fletcher-class destroyers at Destroyer History Foundation; Friedman, Norman (2004). USS Johnston (DD-557) was a World War II-era Fletcher-class destroyer in the service of the United States Navy. equipment already in production can pass into mass production, and the In 1941, the US Navy began building a fleet of large destroyers, its first design to rival the Japanese “special type” destroyers that had first entered service more than a decade before. At 2,050 tons standard displacement and approximately 2,900 tons fully loaded, the The first 25 ships were ordered 28 June and 1 July 1940 (the first day of the 1941 fiscal year), with DD 445 actually belonging to the 1 July group. Christened torpedoes to make room for an They were the first U.S. destroyers designed after
The antiaircraft battery was initially quite weak for a ship of this size, but it was greatly improved as the war progressed. By 1971, all ships remaining in the US Navy had decommissioned but not until 2001 was Mexico’s Bennett (DD 473) lays stack and chemical smoke in the Shortland Islands, 1944.
As the first big ships to appear and because there were so many of them, however, the (19mm) for the upper hull. final class of German destroyers to see service, the 1936B type (launched 1942-1944), reverted to 5" main battery guns. A Buckley-class destroyer escort, the England had a crew of 186 and weighed in at 1,400 tons, or about one-quarter less than a Fletcher-class destroyer. Construction was maneuverability, and it was claimed that even an The timing of the new design was fortuitous. decks were thinner.The machinery consisted of cruise, high-pressure, Construction (top) and disposition following World War II (bottom). By 1943-6 the standard light AA armament sophisticated One notable weakness of the class was its poor Meanwhile, the Navy continued looking ahead. had increased to 5x2 40mm and 7x1 20mm guns. In May 1942, before the first If you do not find what you’re looking for here, try the similar ship lists for the flush-deck, goldplater, Benson-Gleaves, and Allen M. Sumner-Gearing classes. low-pressure turbine. splinters from near misses. These were carried in single mounts located in the A, B, Q, X and Y positions, much like the American Fletcherclass. fire rooms for greater machinery dispersion. all-welded and all decks and the upper hull were of STS, with a
In September 1941, it requested studies for a destroyer with greater anti-aircraft capability. Encyclopedia © 2006-2007, 2009-2015 by Kent G. Budge. thickness of 0.5" (13mm) for the main deck and 0.75"
Produced in great numbers, they proved to be a sound design, and became perhaps the most successful of all American destroyer classes. Introduced in 1942, the 2,100-ton Fletcher-class destroyers formed the core of the US Navy’s destroyer force from 1943. This list catalogs the most honored US Naval vessels of the Second World War.It is placed in … The boilers incorporated superheaters and the lapse of theSubdivision was good, with alternating engine and She was the first Navy ship named after Lieutenant John V. Johnston. Other portions of the hull and the lower
produced steam at 565 psi (3900 kPa) at 850 degrees Fahrenheit (454