The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia
Photograph of Benson-class destroyer
Naval Historical Center #NH 51094
Schematic diagram of Benson class destroyerONI 222
Late 1942: Removed 2 20mm guns and added 1x2 40mm Bofors AA guns. This modification was delayed by shortages of 40mm guns and throughout 1942 the ships of the class varied greatly in armament, with some receiving a temporary 1x4 1.1" gun mount.
1944: A number of units were converted
to fast
minesweepers by removing the torpedo tubes and one
5" gun. These units could sweep a 150 yard (137m) path at
15 knots.
1945-5: Light antiaircraft armament standardized to 2x2, 2x4 40mm guns and 2x2, 2x1 20mm guns with removal of all torpedo tubes. However, only twelve ships received this refit before the end of hostilities.
The Bensons were completed in 1940-43. The individual ships varied considerably in design details and are sometimes treated as up to three distinct classes (Benson, Gleaves, and Bristol). In particular, some of the Bristols were modified by replacing one of the 5" guns with 2 40mm Bofors and 4 20mm Oerlikons. They were "rush job" ships based on the Sims class and were meant to fill the gap until the Fletchers could appear in large numbers. As such, they performed adequately, helping to hold the line in the Solomons and elsewhere.
The ships had excellent machinery dispersal for their size, with widely separated boiler rooms. This required two funnels in place of the single funnel of the Sims. They were the first destroyer class to ship an emergency generator on the main deck, where it would be relatively safe from flooding, and their hulls were significantly stronger than the Sims. All these features enhanced survivability, which was first demonstrated when Kearny survived a torpedo hit by a German U-boat while participating in the Neutrality Patrol. The ships also proved capable of shipping new wartime equipment without excessive loss of stability. Those built by Bath Iron Works used the same high-pressure machinery as the Mahans while those build by Bethlehem used that company's own machinery.
The Bensons introduced the quintuple torpedo
tube mount (Mark 14 and Mark 15) that became standard on all
wartime destroyer classes. The only significant difference between
the two was that the Mark 15 had a circular blast shield for its
operators to protect them from the destroyer's own gun battery.
The mount was electrically trained (with manual backup) and
remotely directed from Mark
27 directors on the bridge wings, backed up with simple
local direction. All torpedoes had to be set to the same running
depth, but the gyro angle setter could set all the torpedoes to
the same course or to a spread around a base course. Torpedoes
were launched using a black powder charge at 50 fps (15 m/s) using
a flash eliminator. Torpedoes were usually launched in the
sequence left, right, left center, right center, center. The
launch tubes were heated in cold climates using ship's auxiliary
steam to prevent icing up.
As Fletchers
became available for fleet operations, many of the Bensons were optimized for convoy escort duty by replacing
one torpedo bank with improved antisubmarine and antiaircraft
weaponry. Although some consideration was given to continuing
production of the Bensons,
the decision was eventually made to focus on mass production of
the Fletchers for fleet
duty and destroyer
escorts for convoy duty. However, following the Japanese surrender, the remaining Bensons were considered still
capable enough to be put in reserve rather than scrapped.
References
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