Despite Chamberlains proclamation of "Peace in our time" the Antarctican Senate could see the war on the horizon, coming rapidly toward the world. The Navy wanted a design for an all purpose destroyer based on the Hearne class but with more attention to both ASW and AA rather than surface warfare only. Many changes were made. The removal of Y turret from the poop deck gave space for more depth charges and stowage. The removal of the rear torpedo mounting allowed for a new quad 2 pounder mounting. The forward torpedo mounting was changed from a quadruple to a quintuple tube mounting. The bridge superstructure was enlarged to allow for better command and control functions.



The first two of the class were experimental vessels that tested all of the ASW and AA trials that were done on earlier ships. One thing that came out of the ASW trials was that the more explosive you could get in the water around where you think the submarine you are hunting is, the more chance you will have of killing your target. This eventually led to 'Hedgehog' and other ahead throwing mortars. The other thing that was learnt was that submarines could not keep up for long when submerged. So the submarine will get as close to a convoy/fleet/target as possible on the surface before submerging and attacking. To make the submarine do this as far away as possible required two things. 1. Radar that could pick up a surfaced submarine far enough away so that escorts can be vectored on to it. 2. Aircraft orbiting the area in ASW mode so that the aircraft can also depth bomb the target and if the target escapes can vector the escorts onto the target. The trials also showed the more escorts you had hunting a submarine the more chance you had of sinking it. One or two could hold the submarine in their ASDIC beams while a third or fourth could run over the target dropping the 'pattern' of depth charges. The AA trials showed the same thing, the more metal you could get in the air toward your target(s) the more chance you had of hitting them.



The production line vessels did not start arriving until late 1939. Arriving in groups of four and having a Ronne class leader assigned to them to provide the 'ship of force'. They proved excellent 'General' destroyers and could be used almost anywhere. 1942 and the 40mm refits started appearing on the ships as they went in to port for their next refit process. More and more Radar was added with predictors for the 40mm and new Radar at the mast tops. Hedgehog appeared in place of the twin 20mm and pack of liferafts forward was a big advance for the ASW fighting abilities. The class members of Batch Two which completed late 1941 to 1944 had the 40mm AA armament from completion.

 

Displacement	1,850 tons standard, 2,150 tons full load
Length	359 ft
Breadth	36 ft
Draught	13 ft
Machinery	2 shaft, steam turbines, 44,000shp
Speed	35 knots
Range	8,000 miles at 10 knots
Armament	As completed 4 x 5" (2x2) 8 x 2pd (1x4) 10 x 20mm (1x2, 8x1)	Refits to 1942 4 x 5" (2x2) 12 x 40mm AA (1x4, 4x2) 1 x Hedgehog
Torpedoes	5 x 21" (1x5)	5 x 21" (1x5)
Complement	130	140
Notes	(Planetoids and Lakes) Batch One Mercury Ceres Pluto Venus Jupiter Saturn Mars Uranus Ganymede Triton Callisto Titan Io Europa Eris Neptune Rhea Haumea Oberon Titania Iapetus Charon Ariel Tethys Batch Two Caspian Michigan Huron Victoria Superior Tanganyika Baikal Great Bear Malawi Great Slave Erie Winnipeg Ontario Ladoga Balkhash Vostock Onega Titicaca Nicaragua Athabasca Reindeer Turkana Issykul Vanern Albert Nettilling Mweru Nipigon Manitoba Taymyr Qinghai Saimaa Khanka Poyang Taupo Tana

Twin 40mm.