The ''John C. Butler'' class were

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

s that originated during

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 ...

. The

lead ship The lead ship, name ship, or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable to naval ships and large civilian vessels. Large ships are very complex and may ...

was , commissioned on 31 March 1944. The class was also known as the WGT type from their Westinghouse geared

turbine A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...

drive. Of the 293 ships originally planned, 206 were canceled in 1944 and a further four after being laid down; three were not completed until after the end of World War II.

History

The standard armament for the class was two

dual purpose gun A dual-purpose gun is a naval artillery mounting designed to engage both surface and air targets. Description Second World War-era capital ships had four classes of artillery: the heavy main battery, intended to engage opposing battleships an ...

s, four

40 mm 40 mm grenade (also styled 40mm grenade) is a generic class-name for grenade launcher ammunition ( subsonic shells) in caliber. The generic name stems from the fact that several countries have developed or adopted grenade launchers in ...

and ten

20 mm 20 mm caliber is a specific size of popular autocannon ammunition. It is typically used to distinguish smaller-caliber weapons, commonly called "guns", from larger-caliber "cannons" (e.g. machine gun vs. autocannon). All 20 mm cartridges h ...

anti-aircraft guns Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

, and three 21-inch (533 mm)

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. It also carried two depth charge racks, eight

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 projectors and one hedgehog projector as secondary weapons. The ships had a maximum speed of . Diagram of US Navy WWII destroyer escort

Diagram of US Navy WWII destroyer escort

The most notable ship of this class was , which gained fame during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where she, along with several other ships, engaged a number of cruisers and battleships of the

Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrend ...

in a torpedo attack, where she was sunk after taking several hits. During this action, ''Samuel B. Roberts'' achieved a speed of for over an hour by running her engines at . She is known in naval lore as "the destroyer escort that fought like a battleship". The other two ships of this class lost were USS ''Shelton'' and USS ''Eversole''. Also notable was for which Captain Henry Lee Plage earned the Legion of Merit, while the entire crew earned the Navy's Unit Commendation Ribbon for taking the initiative to rescue other ships after a disastrous storm. In December 1944, the ship lost her mast and radio antennas riding out

Typhoon Cobra Typhoon Cobra, also known as the Typhoon of 1944 or Halsey's Typhoon (named after Admiral William 'Bull' Halsey), was the United States Navy designation for a powerful tropical cyclone that struck the United States Pacific Fleet in December 1944 ...

, which killed 790 sailors (more than were lost at the battles of Midway and Coral Sea combined). Although damaged and unable to radio for help, she was first on the scene to recover 55 of only 93 total rescued from three destroyers which capsized in the heavy seas. A floating history museum of the destroyer escorts resides in Albany, New York.Destroyer Escort Historical Museum
/ref> (a related ) is docked during temperate months on the Hudson River in Albany, New York. An , , is also on display as a museum ship in Galveston, Texas.

Ships in class

References

External links

*
NavSource Online - John C. Butler class destroyer escort

Destroyer History.org - John C. Butler class destroyer escort
{{WWII US ships Cold War frigates and destroyer escorts of the United States