I have a soft spot for destroyers. I served on the USS Henry W Tucker DD875 from 1969-1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Destroyers get more liberty stops than larger ships, which is a nice perk.
In WW2 destroyers were armed with the most deadly antiship weapons of the time, torpedoes. A Fletcher class carried 10. More than enough to take out a capital ship. Or two.
They were also handy at shore bombardment. There are many instances where destroyer captains brought their ships perilously close in and supported the troops with accurate 5” gunfire via radio. The Tarawa invasion might have failed without that support since the flat shooting 16” battleship rounds largely just skimmed over the island. It took a while for the battleships to figure out plunging fire. A few destroyers went in and took out pillboxes and such. One round took out the Japanese commander and his team. 5” high velocity rounds are very nasty.
*** “I have a soft spot for destroyers. I served on the USS Henry W Tucker DD875 from 1969-1971 after my tour in Vietnam. Destroyers get more liberty stops than larger ships, which is a nice perk” ***
For me it was the USS George K. Mackenzie DD 836, ‘73- until it was Decommissioned in ‘76 ... another perk besides Liberty Ports is that you know everyone on-board (unlike the 2 Carriers I served on later)
That same maneuverability also broke the stalemate at Omaha Beach.
“There are many instances where destroyer captains brought their ships perilously close in and supported the troops with accurate 5” gunfire “
Including Normandy. One captain took his destroyer in so close to Omaha Beach he scraped bottom. Used his guns to blast German hard points and kept that landing from being an even bigger slaughter.