Copyright 2010 by Brandon Cope

Home

Back to Vehicles

Buckley-class destroyer escort

The US had already built about 100 of the Evarts-class destroyer escort (half of which went to the British under Lend-Lease) before the Americans decided to create a stretched version about 17 feet longer. Named after Ensign John D. Buckley, who died aboard the USS Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor, 102 were built (with 46 going to the British). The first ship was commissioned in April, 1943. While the British were very happy with them (they had bunks rather than hammocks for the crew); the USN considered them a bit cramped and spartan.

The most famous ship of this class was the USS England (DE-635), commissioned in December 1943. It led an uneventful career as a convoy escort in the Pacific until mid-May, 1944. On May 18, it sank the Japanese submarine I-16. Over the next thirteen days, it sank five more Japanese submarines., easily the most remarkable anti-sub run in WWII (the last five subs were of the RO-100 class, of which only 18 were built). The England was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for this feat and a total of ten battle stars during the war. The Japanese got their revenge on the England a year later, however. On May 9, 1945, a kamikaze hit the ship, killing 37 and wounding 25. While the ship made it back to port for repairs, it was decided to scrap the ship from a combination of her extensive damage, the end of the war and a surplus of other ships. She was scrapped in 1946.

The ship is laid out with two 3” mounts (one elevated) and the Hedgehog in front of the bridge. Next is the engine's exhaust funnel and the torpedo tubes mount. The third 3” mount and the 40mm mount (elevated) are fitted next and finally the de[th charge racks. The K-Guns and 20mm cannons are spread along the sides of the ship between the elevated 3” gun and 40mm mount.

The crew is normally 220 men. The ship uses 537 gallons of fuel oil per hour. At a speed of 14 mph, this gives a range of 6,900 miles or 4,255 miles at 17 mph.

Subassemblies: Medium Destroyer chassis +9, waterproofed Medium Conning superstructure +5, three waterproofed full rotation Small TD turrets #1-3 +3, one full rotation Medium Weapon open mount #1, eight full rotation Small Weapon open mounts #2-9 +0, one Small Secondary open mount #10 +4
P&P: 9,848 kW steam turbine w/2x4,474-kW screw propellers, 120,000-gallon standard fuel tank; 40,000-kWs batteries
Occ: 8 NCS Sup, 6 NCS Body, 3 NCS each turret
Cargo: 200 Body

Armor

Body: F 4/120, other 4/30

Superstructure: 4/30

3” mounts: FRLT 4/30, B/U 0/0

20mm and 40mm mounts: F 4/25

Armament
3x76.2mm Medium DP Guns/Mk 22 [Tur1-3:F) (20 each)
2x40mm Medium Ground ACs/M-1 [OM#1:F] (25 each)*.
8x20mm Long Ground ACs/M-2 [OM#2-9:F] (180 each)
3x21” torpedo tubes [OM#10:F] (3).
24-tube Hedgehog [Body:T, facing F] (144)
8xK-Guns [Body:T, facing L,R] (5 each)
2xdepth charge racks [Body:T, facing B] (24 each)
* Link fires both
All cannon ammo is ready rounds' x20 is carried in the body. A total of 200 Mk 7 depth charges were carried

Equipment
Body: 1,000 bilge, 10 bilge pumps, 200 cargo, 2-ton crane (for torpedoes), 5 fire extinguishers, 200 bunks, 18 cabins, 8 crew stations, 2 hospital beds, 250 man environmental system, 2 6.25-ton external cradles (for whaleboats), 7,200 man/days provisions, precision navigation instruments, very large radio transmitter and very large radio receiver, radio direction finder, 5 mile active/passive sonar, workshop. Superstructure: Autopilot, 20 crew stations, precision navigation instruments, 10 mile non-targeting sea-search radar, 20 mile non-targeting air-search radar, fire extinguisher, 2 cabins. OM1-9: Universal mount. Tur1-3: Universal mount

Statistics

HT: 11
HP: 108,000 [body], 1,200 [superstructure], 285 [turret], 75 [open mount 1], 45 [open mount 2-9], 560 [open mount 10]

Floatation Rating: 3,000 tons

Design Notes
The historical displacement of 1,740 tons was used to calculate performance data. Design draft was 13'; the historical number was used instead. While historical top speed was 28 mph, it was not rare for a Buckley-class to reach up to 32 mph.

The design came in between two chassis sizes; the Medium Destroyer chassis was selected as the design was well under weight. Left-over space should be ignored.

Initially, a quad 1.1” mount was carried instead of the dual 40mm mount.

Variants
The 97 Evarts were somewhat similar, based on the Light Destroyer chassis. Top speed was 22 mph with diesel engines It lacked the 40mm guns and torpedo tubes. It had seven 20mm guns and four K-Guns. The first was commissioned January 1943..

The High Speed Transport (APD) conversion stripped the torpedo tubes, the Hedgehog and K-Guns and carried up to four Higgins boats (p.W:DF88) in the same space, along with davits and troop quarters for 162 men. The 3” guns were replaced with a single 5” gun. AA armament was six 40mm and six 20mm cannons. Six were built specifically for this role while a further 37 were converted.

The 46 British ships (classed as frigates and known as the Captain-class) carried up to sixteen 20mm cannons and sometimes added a 2-pdr “pom pom” for use against E-boats. Only two K-Guns were carried and the torpedo tubes were removed. A 27' whaleboat was added, as well as a few more life rafts.

Photo (Feb 9, 1944): http://www.navsource.org/archives/06/images/635/0663504.jpg