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Selfridge variant of the Porter class destroyer
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 5:21 am
by saxophone
For the USN in WWII, GHQ makes a Porter class destroyer USN22, and they also make a Selfridge variant of the Porter class USN25.
What are the main differences between the two?
There were 8 Porters built. How many of them were of the Selfridge variant?
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2016 7:15 am
by Donald M. Scheef
USN22, Porter, and USN25, Selfridge, are not really variants; they represent changes with time.
Eight large destroyers of the Porter class were built in the early 1930s, including Selfridge. As built, they were almost identical. They carried four twin mounts for low-angle (no anti-aircraft capability) 5-inch/38 guns, two quad mounts for 1.1-inch anti-aircraft guns, and two quad torpedo mounts. All-in-all they looked more like small cruisers than destroyers. GHQ's USN22 represents this appearance.
By 1940, it was recognized that more anti-aircraft capability would be needed. An early-war modification just replaced the #2 or #3 5-ionch mount with a quad 40mm Bofors, retaining the other three low-angle 5-inch mounts.
By mid-war, more drastic anti-air modifications were needed. Unfortunately, high-angle mounts for the 5-inch guns weigh significantly more than the low-angle mounts and the Porter class was already tight for weight and top-weight. This modification involved replacing the #1 and #4 twin low-angle mounts with twin high-angle mounts, replacing #3 mount with a single high-angle 5-inch mount, removing the 1.1-inch mounts completely, cutting down the bridge structure, putting a quad 40mm Bofors in the location of the #2 mount, and adding two or three twin Bofors amidships. Both banks of torpedo tubes were retained. Porter was sunk in 1942, so never received this modification. At least four of the surviving seven ships had this modification, and possibly more. USN25 represents this appearance.
Towards the end of the war, an even more anti-air oriented modification was put into place. Both banks of torpedo tubes were removed and two additional quad 40mm Bofors added. At least three ships had this modification. I don't know of any model of this configuration.
Don S.