The ''Benham'' class of ten destroyers was built for the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

(USN). They were part of a series of USN destroyers limited to 1,500 tons

standard displacement The displacement or displacement tonnage of a ship is its weight. As the term indicates, it is measured indirectly, using Archimedes' principle, by first calculating the volume of water displaced by the ship, then converting that value into wei ...

by the London Naval Treaty and built in the 1930s.Comparison of 1500-ton classes
a
Destroyer History Foundation
The class was laid down in 1936-1937 and all were commissioned in 1939. Much of their design was based on the immediately preceding and s. Like these classes, the ''Benham''s were notable for including sixteen

torpedo tube A torpedo tube is a cylindrical device for launching torpedoes. There are two main types of torpedo tube: underwater tubes fitted to submarines and some surface ships, and deck-mounted units (also referred to as torpedo launchers) installed aboa ...

s, the heaviest torpedo armament ever on US destroyers. They introduced a new high-pressure boiler that saved space and weight, as only three of the new boilers were required compared to four of the older designs.Friedman, pp. 90-91 The class served extensively in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in the

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Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

, and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

theaters, including

Neutrality Patrol On September 3, 1939, the British and French declarations of war on Germany initiated the Battle of the Atlantic. The United States Navy Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) established a combined air and ship patrol of the United States Atlantic coa ...

s in the Atlantic 1940-1941. ''Sterett'' received the United States Presidential Unit Citation for the

Battle of Guadalcanal The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...

and the

Battle of Vella Gulf The was a naval battle of the Pacific campaign of World War II fought on the night of 6–7 August 1943 in Vella Gulf between Vella Lavella Island and Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands of the Southwest Pacific. This engagement was t ...

,USS ''Sterett'' Presidential Unit Citation
a
Destroyer History Foundation
and the

Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation The Philippine Presidential Unit citation BadgeThe AFP Adjutant General, ''Awards and Decorations Handbook'', 1997, OTAG, p. 65. is a unit decoration of the Republic of the Philippines. It has been awarded to certain units of the United States mil ...

for her World War II service. Two of the class were lost during World War II, three were scrapped in 1947, while the remaining five ships were

scuttled Scuttling is the deliberate sinking of a ship. Scuttling may be performed to dispose of an abandoned, old, or captured vessel; to prevent the vessel from becoming a navigation hazard; as an act of self-destruction to prevent the ship from being ...

after being contaminated from the

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atomic bomb tests at

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in the Pacific.''Behham''-class destroyers
a
Destroyer History Foundation

Design

The ten ''Benham''s were part of a series of three classes with similar characteristics laid down 1935-1937. The other two were the ''Gridley'' class (4 ships) and the ''Bagley'' class (8 ships). All three featured four dual purpose guns (anti-surface and anti-aircraft) and sixteen torpedo tubes in four quadruple mounts as built, the largest number of torpedo tubes on any US destroyers. Although all had only one stack, they differed primarily in their machinery. The ''Benham''s were a

Gibbs & Cox Gibbs & Cox is an American naval architecture firm that specializes in designing surface warships. Founded in 1922 in New York City, Gibbs & Cox is now headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. The firm has offices in New York City; Washington, D.C ...

design with a new high-pressure boiler design that allowed a reduction from four boilers to three, with an efficient turbine arrangement resembling the s'. The ''Bagley''s were a Navy design that duplicated the machinery of the preceding long-range ''Mahan'' class; this led to their prominent boiler uptakes around the single stack that were their main recognition feature. The ''Gridley''s were designed by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company with advanced high-pressure boilers (also built by Bethlehem) but turbines generally similar to the earlier , which limited their range.Bauer and Roberts, p. 187

Engineering

Except for the 1850-ton , the ''Benham''s' propulsion plant was the most advanced yet installed in US destroyers. A new Babcock & Wilcox boiler design was used that allowed a reduction from four boilers to three, saving considerable space and weight. Steam pressure was increased from to (one reference says 565 psi),

superheated A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are ...

to as in the ''Gridley''s. Features that improved fuel economy included boiler

economizer Economizers (US and Oxford spelling), or economisers (UK), are mechanical devices intended to reduce energy consumption, or to perform useful function such as preheating a fluid. The term economizer is used for other purposes as well. Boiler, po ...

s, double reduction

gear A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or gearwheel, inserted teeth (called ''cogs''), which mesh with another (compatible) toothed part to transmit (convert) torque and speed. The basic ...

ing, and cruising turbines. Range was somewhat less than in the ''Bagley''s at versus , possibly due to a smaller fuel capacity of 484 tons versus 504 tons. The main turbines developed on ''Benhams trials and were manufactured by Westinghouse.

Armament

The ''Benham''s had the same armament as the ''Gridley''s and ''Bagley''s: four 5-inch/38 caliber dual purpose guns (anti-surface and anti-aircraft (AA)) in single mounts and sixteen 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes in quadruple mounts. The

Mark 15 torpedo The Mark 15 torpedo, the standard American destroyer-launched torpedo of World War II, was very similar in design to the Mark 14 torpedo except that it was longer, heavier, and had greater range and a larger warhead. It was developed by the Naval ...

was equipped. This was the heaviest armament in

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

es ever on US destroyers. Compared with the ''Mahan''s, they sacrificed one gun for four additional torpedo tubes. It was suggested that these ships could use "curved ahead fire", using the adjustable post-launch gyro angle of their torpedoes to launch a sixteen-torpedo spread ahead of the ship. One reason for the heavy destroyer torpedo armament was that, alone among the major navies, the last nine of the seventeen US

Treaty cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval Tr ...

s built in the 1920s and 1930s lacked torpedoes; eventually all of the US Treaty cruisers' torpedoes were removed in 1941 in favor of additional heavy AA guns. As with most other US destroyers of this period, the 5-inch guns featured all-angle power loading and were director controlled, making them as effective as the technology allowed against aircraft. By late 1942, radio

proximity fuse A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, an ...

s (VT fuses) made them much more effective. As in the last two ''Maury''s, the two forward 5-inch guns were in enclosed mounts, while the after guns were open. However, in the ''Benham''s, the after two mounts were a Mark 30 Mod 1 base-ring type with an integral ammunition hoist fed from a handling room below each gun, as in an enclosed mount. This allowed some of the class to be fitted with an enclosure for No. 4 gun and an open-top shield for No. 3 gun while on

in the Atlantic in 1941; but the shields were removed later to save weight for light anti-aircraft armament. In common with all US surface combatants in the 1930s, the as-built light AA armament was weak; only four .50 caliber machine guns (12.7 mm) were equipped. It was apparently felt that the heavy AA armament would shoot down most incoming aircraft in all situations, but the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii ...

showed that this was not true. While on Neutrality Patrol, some of the class landed their after torpedo tube mounts and .50-caliber machine guns so that their Depth charge and light AA batteries could be increased; photographs show six

Oerlikon 20 mm cannon The Oerlikon 20 mm cannon is a series of autocannons, based on an original German Becker Type M2 20 mm cannon design that appeared very early in World War I. It was widely produced by Oerlikon Contraves and others, with various models em ...

were added along with four

K-gun A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use h ...

depth charge throwers and, reportedly, a

Y-gun A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon. It is intended to destroy a submarine by being dropped into the water nearby and detonating, subjecting the target to a powerful and destructive hydraulic shock. Most depth charges use ...

on some ships. These ships later received two twin

40 mm Bofors Bofors 40 mm gun is a name or designation given to two models of 40 mm calibre anti-aircraft guns designed and developed by the Swedish company Bofors: *Bofors 40 mm L/60 gun - developed in the 1930s, widely used in World War II and into the 1990s ...

mounts on their after deckhouses before being transferred to the Pacific. In 1945, ''Lang'', ''Sterett'', and ''Wilson'' also landed their remaining torpedo tubes and after 5-inch gun shields in favor of a total of four 40 mm twin mounts and four 20 mm twin mounts.Friedman, pp. 218-219

Service

This class, except ''Benham'' and ''Ellet'', served on Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic and escort duty in the Atlantic and Mediterranean as Destroyer Squadron 8 (with as flagship) from April 1940 to December 1941. ''Benham'' and ''Ellet'' were at sea in the

on 7 December 1941 with and of the ''Mahan'' class as Destroyer Division (DesDiv) 12 (part of Destroyer Squadron (DesRon) 6, with as flagship). Later, this four-ship division escorted the aircraft carrier during the

Doolittle Raid The Doolittle Raid, also known as the Tokyo Raid, was an air raid on 18 April 1942 by the United States on the Japanese capital Tokyo and other places on Honshu during World War II. It was the first American air operation to strike the Japa ...

on Japan. In June 1942, while DesDiv 15 (''Lang'', ''Stack'', ''Sterett'' and ''Wilson'') escorted the aircraft carrier to the Pacific, DesDiv 16 (''Mayrant'', ''Trippe'', ''Rhind'', and ''Rowan'') remained in the Atlantic, supporting the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in December 1942. In 1943 they served off

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, where ''Mayrant'' was badly damaged by a

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air attack off Palermo and ''Rowan'' sunk by an

E-boat E-boat was the Western Allies' designation for the fast attack craft (German: ''Schnellboot'', or ''S-Boot'', meaning "fast boat") of the Kriegsmarine during World War II; ''E-boat'' could refer to a patrol craft from an armed motorboat to a lar ...

(

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

) attack off Salerno. Meanwhile, the six Pacific destroyers operated in the

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(where ''Ellet'' was ordered to sink the

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heavy cruiser The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203 mm (8 inches) in caliber, whose design parameters were dictated by the Washington Naval T ...

after the

Battle of Savo Island The Battle of Savo Island, also known as the First Battle of Savo Island and, in Japanese sources, as the , and colloquially among Allied Guadalcanal veterans as the Battle of the Five Sitting Ducks, was a naval battle of the Solomon Islands cam ...

), and were on hand for the

Naval Battle of Guadalcanal The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, sometimes referred to as the Third and Fourth Battles of Savo Island, the Battle of the Solomons, the Battle of Friday the 13th, or, in Japanese sources, the , took place from 12 to 15 November 1942, and was t ...

, 13–15 November 1942, in which ''Sterett'' was badly damaged and ''Benham'' sunk. ''Lang'', ''Sterett'', and ''Stack'' formed division "A-2" at the

in 1943 and, thereafter, all five remaining ships accompanied the advance through the

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and Marianas. Reassigned as DesDiv 4 of DesRon 2, the former DesDiv 15 ships were at

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and later

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; ''Ellet'' was at Iwo Jima. In April 1945, ''Sterett'' and ''Wilson'' were both damaged in ''

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending t ...

'' attacks while on

radar picket A radar picket is a radar-equipped station, ship, submarine, aircraft, or vehicle used to increase the radar detection range around a nation or military (including naval) force to protect it from surprise attack, typically air attack, or from cr ...

duty; ''Wilson'' remained in service while ''Sterett'' returned to service as the war ended. ''Sterett'', ''Ellet'', and ''Lang'' were scrapped in 1947. The others, contaminated as targets in the

atomic bomb tests, were decommissioned and scuttled in deep water off

Kwajalein Kwajalein Atoll (; Marshallese: ) is part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). The southernmost and largest island in the atoll is named Kwajalein Island, which its majority English-speaking residents (about 1,000 mostly U.S. civil ...

in 1948. earned 12

battle star A service star is a miniature bronze or silver five-pointed star inch (4.8 mm) in diameter that is authorized to be worn by members of the eight uniformed services of the United States on medals and ribbons to denote an additional award or ser ...

s, the United States Presidential Unit Citation for the

and the

, and the

for her World War II service.

Ships in class

References

Citations

Sources

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