Benham Class Destroyer

The ''Benham'' class of ten destroyers was built for the United States Navy (USN). They were part of a series of USN destroyers limited to 1,500 tons standard displacement by the London Naval Treaty and built in the 1930s.Comparison of 1500-ton classes
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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 tubes, 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 in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters, including Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic 1940-1941. ''Sterett'' received the United States Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Vella Gulf,USS ''Sterett'' Presidential Unit Citation
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Destroyer History Foundation
and the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation 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 after being contaminated from the Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.''Behham''-class destroyers
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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 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 to as in the ''Gridley''s. Features that improved fuel economy included boiler economizers, double reduction gearing, 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 was equipped. This was the heaviest armament in torpedoes 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 cruisers 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 fuses (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 Neutrality Patrol 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 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 were added along with four K-gun depth charge throwers and, reportedly, a Y-gun on some ships. These ships later received two twin 40 mm Bofors 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 Pacific 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 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 Italy, where ''Mayrant'' was badly damaged by a German air attack off Palermo and ''Rowan'' sunk by an E-boat ( torpedo boat) attack off Salerno.

Meanwhile, the six Pacific destroyers operated in the Solomon Islands (where ''Ellet'' was ordered to sink the Australian heavy cruiser after the Battle of Savo Island), and were on hand for the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 13–15 November 1942, in which ''Sterett'' was badly damaged and ''Benham'' sunk. ''Lang'', ''Sterett'', and ''Stack'' formed division "A-2" at the Battle of Vella Gulf in 1943 and, thereafter, all five remaining ships accompanied the advance through the Marshalls and Marianas. Reassigned as DesDiv 4 of DesRon 2, the former DesDiv 15 ships were at Leyte and later Okinawa; ''Ellet'' was at Iwo Jima. In April 1945, ''Sterett'' and ''Wilson'' were both damaged in '' kamikaze'' attacks while on radar picket 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 Operation Crossroads atomic bomb tests, were decommissioned and scuttled in deep water off Kwajalein in 1948.

earned 12 battle stars, the United States Presidential Unit Citation for the Battle of Guadalcanal and the Battle of Vella Gulf, and the Philippine Republic Presidential Unit Citation for her World War II service.

Ships in class

See also

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* List of destroyer classes of the United States Navy
* List of United States Navy losses in World War II
*List of ship classes of World War II

References

Citations

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External links

''Benham''-class destroyers
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Destroyer History Foundation



"Goldplater" destroyers
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Destroyer History Foundation

Comparison of 1500-ton classes
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Destroyer History Foundation

USS ''Benham'', USS ''Ellet'', and USS ''Lang'' General Information Book with as-built data
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Destroyer History Foundation

{{WWII US ships

Destroyer classes