Fletcher class

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Fletcher class
USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570)
USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570)
Overview
Type destroyer
units 175 built, 0 in service (see units )
Namesake Admiral Frank F. Fletcher
period of service

US Navy: 1942–1971
other: through 2002

Technical specifications
Information applies to the type ship, later construction lots showed deviations
displacement

2100 ts

length

114.7 m

width

12.2 m

Draft

5.4 m

crew

9 officers, 264 men

drive

4 boilers, 2 steam turbines , 2 shafts , 60,000 hp

speed

35  kn

Range

4900  nautical miles (9075 km) at 12 knots

Armament

upon commissioning

  • 5 × 5 inch / 38 caliber -Mk.-30 single turret
  • 4 × 1.1-inch AA guns (quadruple mount)
  • 6 × 20 mm AA guns (single mounts)
  • 10 × 21-inch torpedo tube (2 groups of five)
  • 6 WaBo turrets , 2 WaBo drainage racks

after reconstruction

  • 2 × 5-inch / 38 Mk.-30 single turret
  • 4 × 3-inch / 50 (2 double mounts)
  • 1 × Mk.-108- anti- submarine rocket launcher
  • 2 WaBo drainage racks

The Fletcher-class was a class of destroyers in the United States Navy . The ships were built from 1941 and served in the Navy from 1942. By 1944, 175 ships had been built in eleven different shipyards. This makes the Fletcher class one of the numerically strongest classes of surface warships in the world. The ships participated in all major US Navy operations during the Pacific War. The service in the US Navy lasted with interruptions until 1971, a number of destroyers were given to other nations, including Germany , and remained in active service for a long time. The last ship of the class, the BAM Cuitlahuac (the former USS John Rodgers ), was retired from the Mexican Navy in 2002 after a total of 60 years of service .

history

Planning

After Britain entered World War II in 1939, the US government under Franklin D. Roosevelt assumed that the United States would also be drawn into the war and that Japan would be the main enemy. Roosevelt saw armament as a means of combating unemployment, but the impending entry into war made it clear that the fleet actually had to be strengthened. The destroyers of the US Navy were for the most part outdated models from the First World War , production of the new destroyers of the Gleaves and Benson classes was slow, and most of the destroyer classes from the interwar period were still based on drafts Was built during the First World War or was subject to the limits of the Washington Naval Agreement .

The plans for new battleships and aircraft carriers with a speed of over 30 knots made fast destroyers with a maximum speed between 35 and 38 knots necessary, which required a correspondingly powerful propulsion system. The General Ship Board responsible for the planning received six different designs for the new class of ship, which were based on the specifications (1,600 tons displacement , four to five 5-inch guns, 6,500 nautical miles range at 12 knots) and the predecessor structures of the Gleaves , Benson and Sims classes oriented. At the turn of the year 1939/1940, three new drafts were presented which, compared to the previous drafts, were characterized by a return to the flush decker concept and which made use of increased water displacement for the required armoring of the bridge, command and engine rooms. Compared to the preliminary drafts, it was also possible to strengthen the anti-aircraft armament of four 12.7 mm machine guns with a 28 mm quadruple flak and increase the drive power to 60,000 WPS for 38 knots design speed.

On January 27, 1940, the board made its decision for the design of the renowned construction company Gibbs & Cox with five single towers and awarded the construction contracts for the first 130 ships of the Fletcher class . Of these, eleven ships, including two prototypes for alternative propulsion systems, were later canceled. 16 more destroyers were approved in 1941 and 40 in 1942.

Paul Hamilton and Twiggs about to be launched

construction

In order to complete the large number of destroyers within a short period of time, the construction contracts were awarded to eleven shipyards , including those that had not previously built a ship for the US Navy. Bethlehem Steel received the order for 43 ships and distributed them to the locations San Francisco (18), Staten Island (15) and San Pedro (10). With 31 ships, Bath Iron Works in Bath , Maine received the largest order as a single shipyard. 29 destroyers were built at the Federal Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Kearny , New Jersey , and 21 at Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding in Seattle , Washington . In the Boston Navy Yard 14 ships were laid down at Consolidated Steel Shipyards in Orange , Texas , twelve, at the Charleston Navy Yard ten, in the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard eight and Gulf Shipbuilding in Chickasaw , Alabama built seven destroyers.

The keel-laying of the first ships, USS Nicholas and USS O'Bannon , took place on March 3, 1941 at Bath Iron Works. The lead ship, the USS Fletcher , was laid down on October 2, 1941 at Federal Shipyards in Kearny. The Nicholas ran on 19 February 1942 as the first ship from the stack , the commissioning took place on June 4, 1942 three and a half weeks before the lead ship of the class. The last ship, the USS Rooks , was launched on June 6, 1944 near Seattle-Tacoma.

Changes

During the construction of the first units, the first experiences from the war flowed into the construction. It turned out that the original round wheelhouses of the first ships offered poor all-round visibility. They were therefore supplemented in the later ships by a circuit surrounding the front, which connected the two bridge cams with one another.

Only a few units were equipped with the originally intended 28-mm quadruple and 12.7-mm machine guns, the former was replaced by a 40-mm double mount, and six 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were now part of the design.

The shortage of aluminum during the war made it necessary also to manufacture the upper structures of steel, resulting in a weight increase of 50 tons brought with him and the Topplastigkeit increased the ships. To counteract this, the fire control system was relocated two meters down, and a large part of the armor on the command bridge was dispensed with. The bridge was also modified in such a way that the circulation, which was open from the start, was integrated into the deckhouse. The closed part was moved further aft and now had an angular shape.

In mid-1942 it became clear that a central storage room was necessary to coordinate the weapons and process the information on board. The ships were therefore retrofitted with a Combat Information Center (CIC), which was located below the navigation bridge on the level of the main deck and in which all information converged during the battle.

Conversions

Second World War

As early as 1940 there were plans to equip six destroyers with an on-board flight system for an on-board aircraft in order to provide air reconnaissance capacities also to smaller destroyer groups. The necessary changes were made to five ships ( DD-476 to DD-480 ) during construction in 1942/43, but reversed after a few months at the end of 1943. Reasons for this were, among other things, that the aircraft on the small ships could not be equipped with their full weapon load, but it also became apparent that the concept was superfluous due to the meanwhile grown carrier fleet and the increased number of cruisers and battleships that carried reconnaissance aircraft had become. In addition, it was impossible to equip the destroyers with air defenses due to the lack of space and weight reserves. The sixth ship DD-481 was no longer converted in 1943, but completed in the original configuration.

As a reaction to the intensified Japanese attacks with Tokkotai planes (Kamikaze), the air defense armament of over 50 Fletcher-class ships was drastically increased in the summer of 1945. Some of the guns were equipped with radar controls, many 20 mm single guns were replaced by double mounts and the torpedo armament was reduced.

Cold War

As tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union increased and Soviet naval armament grew, it became clear that the US Navy needed more anti-submarine vessels . For this reason, 18 mothballed Fletcher destroyers from the reserve fleet were reactivated in 1948 and equipped with reinforced anti-submarine weapons.

In addition to the 18 anti-submarine destroyers, more than 60 other fletchers were taken from the reserve fleet at the beginning of the Korean War and partially converted for their new use. The middle turret was removed from 43 ships, and two 76 mm double mounts were installed in its place. In addition, the ships received new fire control systems. These ships were unofficially known as the La Valette class . The remaining reactivated ships retained their WWII armament and were referred to as the Daly class .

FRAM II

Originally, it was decided in 1957 to convert all 18 ships that had already received the submarine conversion in 1948 to FRAM II . 1958 began the conversion of the USS Hazelwood , which should serve as a test ship for the Drone Anti-Submarine Helicopter . As a result, three destroyers ( USS Radford , USS Jenkins and USS Nicholas ) were converted in Pearl Harbor and equipped with a launch site and a hangar for the DASH drones. In 1961, the conversion plans for the 15 remaining DDEs were canceled, leaving three conversions of the Fletcher class. These ships were unofficially known as the Radford class . The three destroyers were also the first ships of the FRAM II program to leave the US Navy in 1969.

period of service

The Fletcher-class destroyers entered service between 1942 and 1944. After the end of World War II, 145 of the remaining destroyers were decommissioned and assigned to the reserve fleet. At the beginning of the Korean War, in addition to the 18 converted anti-submarine destroyers from 1948/49, more than 60 other destroyers were reactivated, 19 of which were retired after the fighting in Korea ended. The remaining destroyers remained in service until the late 1960s and early 1970s. The last ship of the class to be retired from the US Navy was the USS Mullany , which was decommissioned and struck off the ship's records on October 6, 1971 .

Between 1958 and 1960, six Fletcher-class ships ( USS Anthony , USS Ringgold , USS Wadsworth , USS Claxton , USS Dyson and USS Charles Ausburne ) were handed over to the German Navy , which was still under construction at the time, as weapons aid , where they were named Class 119 (ship names : Destroyer 1 to Destroyer 6) were in service until the 1980s. Originally intended as artillery support for amphibious landings, they were later mostly used as submarine fighters in the NATO formations in the North Atlantic and to secure access to the Baltic Sea. The vessels were the frigates of the Bremen-class replaced. Destroyer 1 was sunk off Crete in 1979 during an exercise, destroyer 6 was scrapped in 1968. Two of the destroyers ( Destroyer 2 and Destroyer 3 ) were used by Greece for a few years after their service in the German Navy , the other two ( Destroyer 4 and Destroyer 5 ) were cannibalized by the Greek Navy as spare parts stores.

Forty-five other destroyers were sold or leased to other United States allies in the late 1950s. Brazil received eight ships and the navies of Argentina , Greece, Spain and Turkey received five ships each. Four Fletcher-class ships went to Taiwan, three each to Peru , Italy and South Korea . Japan received two former US destroyers, and two more ships were built in 1958. Mexico and Chile also acquired two ships, one destroyer went to Colombia .

Whereabouts

Ships that were not given to other navies were either scrapped between 1968 and 1976 or were used as target ships for weapons tests.

Four Fletcher-class ships have been preserved as museum ships , three in the United States and one in Greece

John Rodgers, which was retired from the Mexican Navy in 2002 , was to be prepared by the Beauchamp Tower Corporation in Lázaro Cárdenas for relocation to Mobile , Alabama , where she was to serve as a museum ship, but the relocation failed due to financial and bureaucratic hurdles. In 2008, the Mexican authorities announced that they would seize and scrap the ship in order to collect the mooring fees and other costs of one million US dollars that have now been incurred. The ship was then dismantled and scrapped in 2010 and 2011.

See also: List of Fletcher-class units

Photo details

Fletcher in front of New York, 1942

Above: Fletcher in 1942 shortly after commissioning, below the same ship in 1964, here with parts of the crew on the railing. Above you can see the five turrets, the torpedo tube groups and the original SC radar system over the bridge. The small identification number can be seen on the bow, the hull is painted splotch in the camouflage pattern scheme 12 .
In 1964 three of the five guns were removed, as were the original torpedo tubes. Instead of the second front gun, there is a Mark 108 Alfa anti-submarine rocket launcher, two of the rear guns have been replaced by anti-aircraft guns. The rear chimney now also has a mast, on the front mast there are newer radar systems. A large identification number is now emblazoned on the bow, the ship is painted a uniform gray

Fletcher, 1964

Schematic representation

Schematic representation
40: 40 mm anti-aircraft gun A: Forepeak
B: Fuel bunker (formerly heavy oil / later diesel (F 75)) CR: Code room
DG: Longitudinal / transverse aisle FL: Fire control
FR: Radio room GE: 5 "/ 38 gun (# 1-5)
K&N: Radio room & navigation KO: caboose
KOMZ: Operations Center (OPZ) KR: Boiler room / power plant
KÜ: Cooling load / TK load L: load
M: ET load MAR: Turbine room
MQ: Crew deck MR: Ammunition chamber (Munkammer)
MES: Fair OQ: Officers' chambers
OM: Officers mess RA: Rowing machine
SH: Steering position / bridge SUN: Sonar system
SR: Sonar room SZ: Ship carpenter
T: Torpedo tubes UOM: Sergeant mess
W: laundry WR: Washroom
Crack drawing

technology

Hull and superstructure

The hull of a Fletcher destroyer was 114.7 m long ( LüA ) and 12.2 m wide and thus about 8 m longer than the hull of the previous classes. The draft was 5.4 m. With a displacement of 2150 standard tonnes in the empty or 3150 ts with a maximum insert displacement, they were over 30% heavier than their predecessors.

The ships had a continuous main deck, the superstructures taking up about the middle half of the ship's length. The highest point on board was the fire control station for the 5-inch guns, which was located above the navigation bridge. Behind the bridge superstructure there was a mast with radar systems and the two chimneys. The aft deck superstructure carried two powerful searchlights at the beginning of the mission, these were later removed for weight reasons, and housed the emergency control post in the event that the navigating bridge was lost.

The ships did not have much additional armor, only in the area of ​​the engine room and the wheelhouse a 1.2 cm thick additional armor made of hardened steel was attached, which was supposed to protect against heavy machine gun fire and bomb splinters, the sides of the ship were increased by 19 mm over the vital areas - Armored steel protected.

drive

The drive of the ships was done by two steam turbines from General Electric , which their performance in two waves, each with a propeller duties. The steam required for the turbines was generated in four Babcock & Wilcox boilers, which were arranged in two groups in the middle of the ship. The entire propulsion system took up about a third of the ship's length. The total output of the turbines was around 60,000 hp and the maximum speed was between 35 and 38 knots. With a fuel supply of 492 tons of heavy oil , the ships had a maximum range of 4,900 nautical miles at a cruising speed of 12 knots. The ships had an electrically controlled single rudder . In an emergency, the rudder could also be operated by hand from the steering wheel room.

Armament

The front turrets of Halford

5 inch guns

The main armament of destroyers were her 5-inch (127-mm) - guns that in five 30-Mark - towers were housed each with a single gun. Two towers (51 and 52) were in front of the bridge, three aft (53, 54 and 55). The middle gun (53) was rotated 180 ° in relation to the other two rear turrets and thus had a fire area restricted by the superstructure. The guns were used against land and sea targets as well as anti-aircraft guns.

The gun barrels were 5.68 m long and weighed 1.8 tons. The entire tower weighed 18.5 tons. The elevation range of the guns was up to 85 ° upwards and 5 ° downwards. The swivel range was dependent on the gun position and was between 284 and 330 °, which means that the front turrets could also fire to the rear and the rear turrets to the front. The slewing speed of the towers built by Ford Motor Company was 28.75 degrees per second, the towers from General Electric slew at 30 degrees per second.

5 inch gun turrets

Nine crew members were in each tower to operate them, four more in the ammunition room under the gun, where the grenades were transported from the magazine in the ship's hull by means of an elevator. The gun had to be hand loaded, but this could be done at any angle, which increased the rate of fire.

The cadence was usually 15 to 20 rounds per minute, well-rehearsed teams achieved up to 30 rounds per minute. Either Mark. 49 fragmentation grenades for air defense or armor-piercing Mark 46 grenades were fired. At a distance of ten kilometers, the 24.5 kg armor-piercing shells, which left the gun barrel at 792 m / s, could penetrate up to 51 mm of hull armor, the maximum range was at 45 ° barrel elevation over eight nautical miles. The 25 kg anti-aircraft grenades had a muzzle velocity of 762 m / s and a peak height of almost twelve kilometers. After firing, the pipe receded up to 38 cm before it was hydraulically damped.

Anti-aircraft armament

Parts of the anti-aircraft armament on Halford

The anti-aircraft armament was reinforced in the course of the war, originally it consisted of a 28 mm quadruple and six 20 mm Oerlikon automatic cannons . The 28 mm guns achieved a rate of around 100 rounds per minute and the maximum range was around four nautical miles. The quadruple carriage could be rotated 360 ° and swiveled up to 110 ° upwards and 15 ° downwards. The 20-mm cannons fired between 250 and 320 rounds per minute, the range was about two nautical miles. The summit height was almost 3000 m. The number of 20-mm cannons was increased to up to twelve per ship in the course of the war, and in some cases the older single mounts were replaced by double mounts, which further increased the firepower.

The 28 mm quadruplet was soon replaced by a 40 mm twin , and there were other twins, some of which were radar-controlled semi-automatically. The cadence of the 40-mm cannons was up to 160 rounds per minute, the maximum range was four kilometers. The maximum achievable height of the 0.9 kg explosive shells was 6797 meters. In 1945 there were two 40-mm quadruplets and three twins on some destroyers, which gave the ships a large anti-aircraft capacity with a total of 14 40-mm guns.

During the Cold War, the units remaining in active service were equipped with three 76.2 mm twin guns, which replaced the 40 mm Bofors cannons and partially the 53 tower. The 76.2 mm cannons had a rate of between 45 and 50 rounds per minute. The 5.9 kg explosive shells had a range of over seven nautical miles and the maximum height of fire was over 9,000 meters. Fire control was carried out using a Mark 56 radar.

Torpedo tubes

For use against ships were ten 21-inch (533-mm) torpedo tubes in two rotating groups of five on the superstructure amidships. The torpedo tubes could be reloaded using a crane that was attached to the forward funnel. The torpedoes weighed 1,004 kg and had a 353 kg warhead with an impact fuse. The range was about 7.5 nautical miles, the maximum speed of the torpedoes was 45 knots. Course, depth and speed were set before the weapon was fired.

The front tube set was removed from 50 ships in 1945 in favor of more powerful, radar-controlled anti-aircraft armament.

The stern of the USS Bush shows parts of the anti-aircraft armament, the drainage racks for the depth charges and the smoke generators

Submarine armament

On the stern were to ASW six water bomb thrower for 300-lb (136-kg) bombs with a total of 30 water bombs and two delivery rails for up to 26 600 lb (272-kg) -Wasserbomben. The originally used, barrel-shaped Mark 7 "ash can" (ash bucket) charges were replaced from 1943 by streamlined Mark 9 "tear drop" (tears), which sank faster and were easier to control thanks to their stabilizing fins.

With the U-Jagd conversion in 1948, 18 destroyers received a heavy Mark 15 Hedgehog launcher and four Mark 24 U torpedo tubes in the aft superstructure. A little later, eight of these DDEs were equipped with a Mark 108 anti-submarine rocket launcher (Weapon Alfa), which could carry twelve depth charges between 700 and 900 m per minute, in front of the bridge. From 1958 the U-Jagdzerstörer received two short Mark 32 triple torpedo tubes on each side of the superstructure.

Defensive measures

In order to hide themselves and allied ship formations from optical detection, the destroyers had two options for laying smoke and fog walls. By injecting the fuel (heavy oil) into the chimneys, thick black smoke was produced. At the stern of the destroyer there were also tanks in which sulfur trioxide and chlorosulfonic acid were located. These components were mixed and sprayed, creating a thick white curtain of fog behind the ship. During the Battle of Samar , this tactic was successfully used by Taffy 3 , a destroyer association.

Bridge and mast of the USS Young . Over the bridge the Mk. 37 fire control system, here already with Mk. 12/22 antennas. On the mast the SC-4 air radar with IFF bars, underneath the antenna of the SG surface radar

Reconnaissance and fire control

The main radar of the destroyers was the General Electric SC radar in various versions, the rectangular antenna of which was about 4.6 meters by 1.4 meters at the top of the mast. The radar could locate airplanes at a distance of up to 30 nautical miles, later versions had a range twice as long. The detection range for ships was between 5 and 20 nautical miles, depending on the size of the target. In the course of the war, the ships were then additionally equipped with a system for friend-foe recognition , the antenna of which was located on the radar antenna. To locate surface targets, the ships had an SG radar from Raytheon with a range of up to 22 nautical miles, which could also be used to a limited extent for locating aircraft. The antenna was a little below the top of the mast.

After the war, these systems were replaced by the SPS-6 radar, which had a detection range of up to 140 nautical miles. The antenna was 5.5 meters by 1.5 meters, weighed about 400 kg and had an output of 500 kW. Some ships also received the SPS-29 radar with a range of 270 nautical miles.

As a fire control system for the 5 "guns, a Mark 37 system was used on the ships, which was located above the bridge. It consisted of the rotating structure that carried the optical detection systems and the Mark 4 fire control radar as well as the one below Part that housed the electromechanical Mark 1 fire control computer . At 18.1 tons, the entire system was only slightly lighter than a 5-inch gun turret. Twelve crew members were required to operate.

Air targets could be pursued in level flight up to speeds of 400 knots, in dive flight up to 250 knots.

The square, 1.8 m × 1.8 m measuring Mark 4 antenna was later replaced by a slightly smaller Mark 12/22 dual antenna, which enabled improved tracking of aerial targets.

The 40 mm guns were partly equipped with Mark 63 blind fire control devices during the war, and the system was also used in the 76.2 mm guns.

To locate underwater targets, the Fletchers were equipped with a sonar system, the location and direction finding systems of which were located in the front part of the hull. The sonar could be operated both actively and passively. The three converted by FRAM II destroyer also received a SQA-10 - towed sonar .

Halford with a reconnaissance plane on the catapult

Planes

In order to accommodate the on-board flight system and the reconnaissance aircraft , the center gun (53), the aft torpedo tube set and the deckhouse between the gun turrets 53 and 54 had to be removed from the five converted destroyers. Instead of the superstructure, a Mark VI aircraft catapult was set up, with which the Vought Kingfisher was launched. To rescue the aircraft, a mast with a boom was installed on the aft chimney on the port side, which served as an aircraft crane. In addition, tanks for 435 liters of aviation fuel and 35 liters of lubricating oil were accommodated on board.

The 40 mm anti-aircraft gun, which was originally located on the deckhouse, was relocated to the stern along with the fire control radar.

Radford after the FRAM II conversion

Drones

In order to create space for the hangar and the landing area, the aft deckhouse was removed, as were cannons 53 and 54. In their place, a hangar for two QH-50 drones with maintenance and refueling facilities was built, to which the landing area was connected . The drones were remotely controlled aboard the ship and carried two Mark 44 torpedoes. Due to serious problems with the control and reliability, the program was quickly abandoned.

crew

In 1942 the crew of a Fletcher-class destroyer consisted of 273 men, including nine officers. Commander was an officer in the rank of Lieutenant Commander or Commander . The reinforcement of the anti-aircraft armament and the installation of the command center on board increased the number of crew members to 329. The crew was divided into four ship divisions.

1st ship division: nautical deck personnel
2nd Ship Division: Gun and weapons personnel
3rd ship division: electrics, machine personnel
4th ship division: ship personnel (e.g. radio operator , plotter , weapon control via radar), supplies, kitchen , personnel office, stewards

Most of the crew was responsible for the operation of the armament, around a dozen crew members were deployed in the command center, and the first officer was in charge there . The galley was responsible for supplying the crew, and there was also a laundry on board, which usually washed once a week.

Mission profile

Destroyer Squadron 21 underway in the Pacific, 1943

Second World War

Although most ships of the class were built on the east coast of the United States, all destroyers were used in the Pacific theater of war. Their main task was to escort and protect other ships. With their extensive sonar and anti-submarine equipment, they provided anti-submarine defense in larger ship formations, but the Fletchers also took on defense against enemy ships . With the intensification of the Japanese air strikes and the establishment of the Combat Information Center on board, the ships were also increasingly used as radar and air defense outposts by carrier combat groups and heavy duty units. In this position the ships then also functioned as fighter control centers for the American naval aviators against attacking Japanese aircraft.

In some cases, however, the destroyers were also on the move in smaller task forces without the accompaniment of carriers and battleships. These destroyer or cruiser squadrons mostly operated independently at the beginning of the war, but during the war they were mostly subordinated to larger combat units.

Due to their strong artillery armament, the Fletchers were also often used to prepare and support amphibious landing operations, they also often provided artillery support for units that had already landed.

Cold War

The 18 ships converted into anti-submarine destroyers were used from 1949 together with the Navy anti-submarine aircraft carriers (CVS) in anti-submarine combat groups, so-called "Hunter Killer Groups". Their main objective was to track down and hunt the Soviet nuclear submarines with ICBMs . The ships of the La Valette and Daly sub-classes were used as anti-aircraft ships in aircraft carrier associations during the Korean War and partly during the Vietnam War , but mostly for coastal bombardments, as the anti-aircraft guns could not be used adequately against the ever faster jet aircraft.

The William D. Porter listed after a kamikaze near hit

Damage and Loss

The losses among the Fletchers during World War II were relatively high; about 10% of the ships were sunk, almost half of them were partly badly damaged. The first destroyer of the class to be lost was the USS De Haven , which sank on February 1, 1943, less than six months after its commissioning, off Savo Island after several bomb hits. Losses were particularly high during the last months of the war: between April and July 1945, eleven destroyers, mostly kamikaze planes, were sunk by enemy action, most of them during the Battle of Okinawa . A total of 18 destroyers were lost to enemy action during the entire war. The USS Spence capsized in a severe typhoon on December 18, 1944 and sank.

Many destroyers were damaged by bombs and kamikaze attacks during the war, six of them so badly that they were prematurely decommissioned and scrapped. After the Second World War, three other destroyers were badly damaged in accidents and retired.

Additional information

literature

Movies

  • The History Channel: Heavy Metal - The Destroyer. USA 2003

Web links

Commons : Fletcher class  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. Bechtermünz Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-86047-587-8 , p. 170.
  2. ↑ Raven: Fletcher Class Destroyers. Naval Institute Press, Annapolis 1986, ISBN 0-87021-193-5 . P. 4.
  3. ↑ a b M.J.Whitley: Destroyer in World War II. Motorbuch Verlag, 1995, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 (Original: Destroyers of World War Two. Arms & Armours Press, London), p. 289.
  4. ↑ destroyerhistory.org , as of November 18, 2006
  5. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. Pp. 172-178.
  6. ↑ a b Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. P. 66f.
  7. ↑ a b c d e Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. P. 171.
  8. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. P. 242.
  9. ↑ a b globalsecurity.org , as of December 18, 2006
  10. ↑ Operation Enduring Service Project Log ( Memento from January 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ New York Times: Caught in legal crossfire, a celebrated US warship rusts away. July 14, 2008 , as of May 23, 2009
  12. ^ A World War II Destroyer's Demise in Mexico. blogs.nytimes.com , April 11, 2012
  13. ↑ Harald Fock: Z-before! International development and war missions of destroyers and torpedo boats. Vol. 2. During World War II: 1940-1945. Koehlers Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0762-9 , p. 312.
  14. ↑ a b globalsecurity.org , as of November 19, 2006
  15. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Destroyer of the US Navy. P. 178.
  16. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. Koehler Verlagsgesellschaft, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7822-0806-4 , p. 16ff.
  17. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 33f.
  18. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 29f.
  19. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 93f.
  20. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 97.
  21. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 114f.
  22. ↑ Terzibaschitsch: Combat systems of the US Navy. P. 153.
  23. ↑ Raven: Fletcher Class Destroyers . P. 12f

Remarks

  1. ↑ USS Percival (DD-452) for testing high-pressure boilers, USS Watson (DD-482) for researching diesel propulsion
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on January 20, 2007 in this version .