Clemson class

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Clemson- class
The Billingsley
The Billingsley
Ship data
country United StatesUnited States (national flag) United States
Ship type destroyer
Construction period 1918 to 1922
Launch of the type ship September 5, 1918
Units built 156
period of service 1919 to 1948
Ship dimensions and crew
length
95.81 m ( Lüa )
width 9.7 m
Draft Max. 3 m
displacement 1215 tn.l.
 
crew 122 men
Machine system
machine 4 × steam boiler
2 × geared turbine
Machine
performance 		27,000 PS (19,858 kW)
Top
speed 		35.5 kn (66 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament

The Clemson- class was a class of destroyers in the United States Navy . The total of 156 ships were built from 1918 and some served in the US Navy until shortly after the end of World War II . In 1940, 19 ships were handed over to the Royal Navy as part of the destroyer-for-bases agreement , in which they were used until 1948.

construction

The Clemson class was a further development of the First World War used Wickes class . They were the last of the American smooth deck destroyers with their characteristic four funnels.

The biggest difference to the predecessor class were the larger tanks, which could hold an additional 100  tonnes a full 35 percent more oil, giving the ships a considerably greater range than their predecessors, which were regarded as too "short of breath". Nevertheless, the range of the Clemson class remained unsatisfactory, and it was assumed that most ships would not be able to cross the Atlantic on their own. Consideration was given to converting some boiler rooms and magazines into additional tanks, but this was dropped in favor of the concept of refueling at sea by fleet providers. Another problem that had been taken over from the pre-class was maneuverability - the V-shaped stern gave the ships a very large turning circle, which led to difficulties, especially during the submarine hunt , which required tight maneuvers . This was made worse by the fact that the two propellers turned in the same direction and not in the opposite direction, as is common in two-screw ships. Since the type of screw rotation had an impact on the rudder behavior, the destroyers were as difficult to maneuver as single-screw ships, especially during berthing maneuvers. Although the rudders were enlarged on the Clemson class , this did not even remedy the problems. At sea the ships turned out to be very "wet", i. H. there was a lot of water on the deck when the sea was rough. Due to their narrow hulls , they rolled very hard in rough seas.

Clemson- class rift

The armament was taken over unchanged from the Wickes class, it remained with the four individually erected 102 mm guns, one each on the bow and stern and the other two raised on platforms on the sides of the second funnel. At the beginning of the 1920s, this was an average armament at best, since the way it was set up allowed a maximum of three guns to fire on the same target. The British counterpart, the V and W class destroyers built during the First World War , were able to deploy all of their four 102 mm guns (two each on the bow and stern) in the broadside. Instead, the Clemson class carried twice the number of torpedoes with a total of four sets of triple tubes (two on each side) . A single 76.2 mm gun was considered sufficient for anti-aircraft defense . Up until the beginning of the Second World War, most of the destroyers still in service had only two heavy machine guns retrofitted; at the end of the war, the flak finally consisted of six individual 20 mm Oerlikon cannons .

All destroyers were built between 1918 and 1922 in a very short construction period by the shipyards Newport News Shipbuilding (14), William Cramp & Sons (24), New York Shipbuilding (20), Mare Island Naval Shipyard (6), Norfolk Naval Shipyard (3) , Bath Iron Works (3) and Bethlehem Steel (85); The latter group built the destroyers at the Fore River Shipyard (10) and Squantum Victory Yard (35) in Quincy and at the Union Iron Works (40) in San Francisco .

The large number of units built is due, among other things, to the fact that the construction contracts were issued during the First World War and were not canceled after the end of the war. Thereafter, no further destroyers were built for the US Navy until the Farragut- class was built in 1934.

commitment

The destroyers of this class served in all parts of the fleet and formed the main part of the American destroyer squadrons between the world wars. In 1923 seven destroyers were lost in the ship disaster at Honda Point . Numerous destroyers were decommissioned and mothballed in the 1920s because the US Navy had no use for so many destroyers. In 1930, numerous destroyers were scrapped because their water-tube boilers had worn out. A total of 60 Wickes and Clemson- class destroyers were affected, all of which were built by Bethlehem Steel. The Moody was sold to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and sunk during the shooting of the film Hell Below .

Mothballed destroyers were reactivated to replace them. Numerous Clemsons , like the forerunners of the Caldwell and Wickes classes , were converted to other required types of ships. The destroyers turned into mine-layers (DM 1-22, from 1920, 1941 DM 15-22), Coast Guard cutter (6 CG 15-20; 1930-1935, back to the Navy), aircraft tenders (AVD 1-14, 1938–40), minesweepers (DMS 1-18, 1940/41), fast troop transports (32 APD 1-36) and other auxiliary ships.

Second World War

When the US Navy's need for destroyers increased significantly after the outbreak of World War II, many of the mothballed destroyers were reactivated. As part of the Destroyer for bases agreement handed over the USA 1940 27 destroyer of Clemson class to the Royal Navy, which together with the 33 other destroyers passed the Caldwell - and Wickes class to Town-class summed up. Numerous other ships were used in the American neutrality patrol in the Atlantic. The Reuben James was sunk on October 31, 1941 by the German submarine U 552 - even before Germany officially declared war on the USA - and was the first American warship to be sunk by a German submarine during World War II.

After the US entered the war as a result of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , there were some skirmishes in the Pacific War in which Clemson- class destroyers were used in the forefront for lack of more modern destroyers as part of the ABDA fleet . In numerous skirmishes, especially in the sea ​​battle off Balikpapan , in which four ships of the Clemson fleet achieved the only significant success of the ABDA fleet, it became clear that the armament against enemy ships and fighter planes no longer met the requirements of a destroyer in any way . As a result, the units were mostly used for escort duties in rear areas, whereby as the war progressed, numerous remaining units were converted to other types of ships. In their new functions as fast troop transports and minesweepers, they took part in numerous amphibious landing operations.

During the conquest of Java in 1942, the Japanese captured Stewart, which was sunk in the port of Surabaya . They lifted the ship and put it into service as an escort ship. After the surrender of Japan , the ship was taken over by the US Navy and then scrapped.

After the end of the war, all remaining units of the class were scrapped or sunk as target ships until 1947 . The units used in other fleets also followed until 1952.

Web links

Commons : Clemson class  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files