_underway_ge%C3%A4.jpg) USS Somers in 1944
| |
| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name | Somers class |
| Builders | |
| Operators |  United States Navy |
| Preceded by | Bagley class |
| Succeeded by | Benham class |
| Built | 1935–1939 |
| In commission | 1937–1945 |
| Completed | 5 |
| Lost | 1 |
| Retired | 4 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type | Destroyer |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 381 ft (116 m) |
| Beam | 36 ft 2 in (11.02 m) |
| Draft | 10 ft 4 in (3.15 m) |
| Installed power |
|
| Propulsion | 2 shafts |
| Speed | 36 kn (67 km/h; 41 mph) design, 38.6 kn (71.5 km/h; 44.4 mph) trials |
| Range | 7,020 nmi (13,000 km; 8,080 mi) at 12 kn (22 km/h; 14 mph) |
| Complement |
|
| Sensors and processing systems | |
| Armament |
|
| Notes | Armament varied greatly from ship to ship during World War II. |
The Somers-class destroyer was a class of five 1850-ton United States Navy destroyers based on the Porter class. They were answers to the large destroyers that the Japanese navy was building at the time, and were initially intended to be flotilla leaders. They were laid down from 1935–1936 and commissioned from 1937–1939. They were built to round-out the thirteen destroyers of 1,850 tons standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the London Naval Treaty, and were originally intended to be repeat Porters. However, new high-pressure, high-temperature boilers became available, allowing the use of a single stack. This combined with weight savings (including elimination of reload torpedoes) allowed an increase from two quadruple center-line torpedo tube mounts to three. However, the Somers class were still over-weight and top-heavy.[2] This was the first US destroyer class to use 600 psi (4,100 kPa) steam superheated to 850 °F (454 °C),[3] which became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and World War II.[4]
Like the Porters, they were originally built with eight 5-inch (127 mm)/38 caliber guns in four single-purpose (surface action only) twin mounts.[5] Anti-aircraft (AA) protection was initially provided by two quadruple 1.1-inch (28 mm) machine cannon mounts and two .50-caliber machine guns. The 1.1-inch mounts were intended to compensate for the 5-inch guns' lack of AA capability; in the 1930s this was thought to be sufficient. As with the Porters, the Somers' main armament was reduced to six guns (and replaced with dual-purpose mounts totaling five guns in Davis and Jouett) during World War II, with the anti-aircraft armament replaced by 40 mm Bofors and 20 mm Oerlikon guns and the torpedo armament reduced to eight tubes.[4] In two ships (Davis and Jouett) the torpedo armament was eliminated to maximize the number of 40 mm guns.[6]
All of the class served in World War II, initially on Neutrality Patrols in the Atlantic and Caribbean. In early 1942 Warrington and Sampson were transferred to the Southeast Pacific Area, where they primarily escorted convoys between the Panama Canal and the Society Islands. In mid-1943 these two were transferred to the Southwest Pacific Area and operated near New Guinea and in the Solomon Islands; the others operated off Brazil and in the Caribbean and South Atlantic. In May 1944 all were transferred to the North Atlantic to support the invasion of Normandy, which Somers, Davis, and Jouett were directly involved in. Somers and Jouett supported the invasion of southern France in August. Warrington foundered in a hurricane in the Bahamas in September 1944. The others escorted convoys for the remainder of the war, and were scrapped by 1947.[7]
- ^ Friedman p. 404
- ^ Friedman, pp. 84–86
- ^ Friedman, pp. 464–465
- ^ a b Bauer and Roberts, pp. 186–187
- ^ Friedman, p. 219
- ^ Somers-class destroyers at Destroyer History Foundation