John Paul Jones
02-01-2005, 10:36 PM
A strength of the Sumners was the enormous firepower that could be directed forward—four 5-inch barrels or even six at longer ranges, as the after mount could be trained forward to fire over the mast. Another strength was the layout of the engineering plant and the increase of generating capacity to 800kW plus 200kW standby diesels. As displacement rose, speed fell: on trials, Barton made 34.2 knots at 2,880 long tons.
An initially-perceived weakness was that they were bow-heavy—the effect of a dispersed 5-inch battery was more weight nearer the ends, making the bows slower to rise in comparison with the Fletchers. Another weakness was the original bridge structure, which proved cramped. Several ships were completed before a change was made to the bridge configuration; those with the earliest bridge design were refitted.
Fifty-eight Allen M. Sumners were completed as destroyers—55 of them (all except John W. Thomason, Buck and Henley) before the war ended. The other twelve were converted as fast minelayers, omitting torpedo tubes and fantail 20mm mounts in favor of rails for 120 mines, though they were never called upon to lay mines.
One division of Sumners served first in the Atlantic—including support of the D-day invasion, where Meredith was lost. Thereafter, they like the subsequent 2250-ton Gearings went to the Pacific where three more were lost—Cooper to a destroyer torpedo in Ormoc Bay (on the west coast of Leyte), and Mannert L. Abele and Drexler to suicide planes at Okinawa, where Hugh W. Hadley and minelayers J. William Ditter and Aaron Ward also were damaged beyond repair, leaving 63 ships available for postwar service.
Today, one Sumner is preserved—Laffey, the “ship that would not die”—at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
An initially-perceived weakness was that they were bow-heavy—the effect of a dispersed 5-inch battery was more weight nearer the ends, making the bows slower to rise in comparison with the Fletchers. Another weakness was the original bridge structure, which proved cramped. Several ships were completed before a change was made to the bridge configuration; those with the earliest bridge design were refitted.
Fifty-eight Allen M. Sumners were completed as destroyers—55 of them (all except John W. Thomason, Buck and Henley) before the war ended. The other twelve were converted as fast minelayers, omitting torpedo tubes and fantail 20mm mounts in favor of rails for 120 mines, though they were never called upon to lay mines.
One division of Sumners served first in the Atlantic—including support of the D-day invasion, where Meredith was lost. Thereafter, they like the subsequent 2250-ton Gearings went to the Pacific where three more were lost—Cooper to a destroyer torpedo in Ormoc Bay (on the west coast of Leyte), and Mannert L. Abele and Drexler to suicide planes at Okinawa, where Hugh W. Hadley and minelayers J. William Ditter and Aaron Ward also were damaged beyond repair, leaving 63 ships available for postwar service.
Today, one Sumner is preserved—Laffey, the “ship that would not die”—at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.