The Fletchers had a standard displacement of 2,050 tons and a fully laden displacement of 2,500 tons, with a hull length of 376.5 feet, a beam width of 39.5 feet, and a draft of 17.5 feet. The vessel was commissioned on June 30, 1942, with Lt. 2, 1941, she was launched on May 3, 1942, a launch sponsored by Mrs. The lead ship of the class was the USS Fletcher (DD-445). One hundred seventy-five of these ships were built between 19 – more than any other destroyer class. Frank Jack Fletcher, hero of the Battle of Midway and also a Medal of Honor recipient. Fletcher received the Medal of Honor for the 1914 Battle of Veracruz and was in turn the uncle of Adm.
Navy destroyer was the Fletcher class.ĭesigned in 1939, the Fletcher-class destroyers were named for Rear Adm. the destroyers, and a shining example of a U.S. One would have to include the “ tin cans,” i.e.
Combat vessels without the big guns or planeloads of the aforementioned classes still made a vital contribution to ultimate victory over the Axis powers. Fletcher-Class Destroyers: A History – When one thinks of the various classes of surface warships that served in the United States Navy during the Second World War, chances are one’s thoughts wander to the proverbial big boys on the block – vessels such as the Yorktown-class aircraft carriers, Iowa-class battleships, and North Carolina-class battleships.īut we should not forget the smaller fish that skimmed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.