DESTROYER USS WORLD WAR II 1943 TURNING THE TIDE

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aukepalmhof
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DESTROYER USS WORLD WAR II 1943 TURNING THE TIDE

Post by aukepalmhof » Mon Nov 01, 2021 7:37 pm

The USA issued a souvenir sheet for World War II in, 1993 “Turning the Tide” of 10 stamps of which three stamps shows us a watercraft.
The first on the left above in the sheet shows us a USA destroyer, within the background two merchant ships. The image is most probably a convoy crossing the North Atlantic.
Of the merchant ship I have not any information, the destroyer is one built before World War II, you can see on the destroyer on the stamp the two rows of portholes in the hull. During World War II built destroyers, the portholes disappeared in the hull. Otherwise of which class she was built is very difficult to find, all the USS destroyers of that time did look mostly the same.

Throughout World War II Britain’s survival depended on shipments of food, war materials, and other supplies from the United States. As Germany tried to destroy these shipments, Britain struggled to keep its shipping lanes open.

The greatest threat to these precious shipments came from the “Unterseeboote”, German submarines more commonly referred to as “U-boats.” During the early years of the war, these submarines became the terror of the seas as they prowled the Atlantic, torpedoing any Allied ships they spotted.

At first, the Germans seemed to be winning the Battle of the Atlantic. Each month they sank thousands of tons of Allied shipping. Gradually, the Allied forces overcame the threat of U-boats. Using a convoy system of cargo ships that sailed in large groups escorted by warships, shipments of guns, tanks, and planes were successfully received by the British.

In addition, improvements made to radar and sonar allowed Allied forces to locate German submarines, which were then bombed when they surfaced. By 1943, the Allies were sinking the U-boats faster than Germany could replace them, and the crisis in the Atlantic had passed.

https://www.mysticstamp.com/Products/Un ... /2765/USA/

Wikipedia has on that timeframe on the destroyers as follows:

7 December 1941, the day the United States entered World War II, the United States Navy had 100 destroyers seven years old or newer. This number included 27 Benson and Gleaves-class destroyers. However, none were equipped with torpedoes comparable to the (then unknown) Type 93 torpedoes ("Long Lance torpedo"[54]) of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and only destroyer leaders had more than four main guns—inferior to the six guns on a Japanese Fubuki-class destroyer (the first 24 ships of the Benson/Gleaves class were built with five guns, but excessive topweight led to one being removed).
In 1940, fifty "flush deckers" were transferred to the British Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. Other "flush deckers" were converted as high-speed transports (APD), seaplane tenders (AVD), minelayers (DM), minesweepers (DMS), and other roles (AG), while some were retained as destroyers. Most remaining in US service were rearmed with varying numbers of 3-inch dual-purpose guns.
After World War II broke out across Europe in 1939, the United States Navy began sketches for a five-gun ship— on an enlarged hull. Introduced in 1942, the 175 Fletcher class "2100 tonners". became the U.S. Navy's signature destroyer in the Pacific War. By the end of World War II, the U.S. Navy had also commissioned 112 six-gun destroyers derived from the Fletcher design; 67 Allen M. Sumner class 2200 tonners and 45 Gearing class 2250 tonners.[2] The Allen M. Sumner class' hull was slightly wider than the Fletcher class', while the Gearing-class design was a lengthened version of the Allen M. Sumners. By 1945, as the threat from kamikazes increased and the threat from the Japanese surface fleet decreased, torpedoes and guns were partially (or completely in the case of torpedoes on some ships) removed from most US destroyers in favor of light anti-aircraft guns.[ Destroyers had acquired the hazardous radar picket mission by this time Collectively, these destroyer designs are sometimes regarded as the most successful of World War II.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_d ... tates_Navy
USA 1993 29c sg2803, Scott 2765a
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USS_Benham_(DD-397)_off_Kearny,_New_Jersey_(USA),_on_4_January_1939_(NH_97822) (2).jpg
USS_Benham_(DD-397)_off_Kearny,_New_Jersey_(USA),_on_4_January_1939_(NH_97822) (2).jpg (101.23 KiB) Viewed 384 times
1993 Destroyers-Allied-forces-battle-German-U-boats (2).jpg
1993 Destroyers-Allied-forces-battle-German-U-boats (2).jpg (103.98 KiB) Viewed 384 times

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