The ''John C. Butler'' class were destroyer escorts that originated during World War II. The lead ship was , commissioned on 31 March 1944. The class was also known as the WGT type from their Westinghouse geared turbine 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 guns, four 40 mm 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 ha ...

anti-aircraft guns, and three 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes. It also carried two

depth charge 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 Shock factor, hydraulic shock. Most depth ...

racks, eight K-gun 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 The Battle of Leyte Gulf ( fil, Labanan sa golpo ng Leyte, lit=Battle of Leyte gulf; ) was the largest naval battle of World War II and by some criteria the largest naval battle in history, with over 200,000 naval personnel involved. It was fou ...

, where she, along with several other ships, engaged a number of

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

s and

battleship A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of large caliber guns. It dominated naval warfare in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The term ''battleship'' came into use in the late 1880s to describe a type of ...

s of the Imperial Japanese Navy 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, 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 Galveston ( ) is a coastal resort city and port off the Southeast Texas coast on Galveston Island and Pelican Island in the U.S. state of Texas. The community of , with a population of 47,743 in 2010, is the county seat of surrounding Galvesto ...

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