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The Town-class destroyers were a group of destroyers transferred from the United States Navy to the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy in exchange for military bases in the Bahamas and elsewhere, as outlined in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between Britain and United States, signed on 2 September 1940. They were known as "four-pipers" or "four-stackers" because they had four smokestacks (funnels). Later classes of destroyers typically had one or two. Some went to the Royal Canadian Navy at the outset. Others went on to the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Royal Netherlands Navy, and the Soviet Navy after serving with the Royal Navy. Although given a set of names by the Commonwealth navies that suggested they were one class they actually came from three classes of destroyer: , , and . Town class refers to the Admiralty renaming these ships after towns common to the United States and the British Commonwealth.〔 Ships initially commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy, however, followed the Canadian practice of giving destroyers the names of Canadian rivers. The rivers selected for the ''Town'' class were on the border between Canada and the United States, with the exception of the Nova Scotia river sharing the name of the United States Naval Academy location.〔Milner 1985 p.23〕 One of the Towns achieved lasting fame: (ex-). In the Commando raid Operation ''Chariot'', ''Campbeltown'', fitted with a large demolition charge, rammed the Normandie Lock at Saint-Nazaire, France. The charge detonated on 29 March 1942, breaching the drydock and destroying ''Campbeltown'', thus destroying the only drydock on the Atlantic coast capable of accepting the . This exploit was depicted in the 1950 Trevor Howard film ''The Gift Horse'', which starred (ex-) after her return from service in Russia. ==Characteristics== Roughly contemporaneous to the British s they were not much liked by their new crews. They were uncomfortable and wet, working badly in a seaway. Their hull lines were rather narrow and 'herring-gutted' which gave them a vicious roll. The officers didn't like the way they handled either, since they had been built with propellers that turned the same way (2-screw ships normally have the shafts turning in opposite directions as the direction of rotation has effects on the rudder and the whole ship when manoeuvring, especially when coming alongside), so these were as awkward to handle as single-screw ships. Their turning circle was enormous, as big as most Royal Navy battleships, making them difficult to use in a submarine hunt which demanded tight manoeuvres, compounded by unreliable "chain and cog" steering gear laid across the main deck. They also had fully enclosed bridges which caused problems with reflections in the glass at night. Despite their disadvantages they performed vital duties escorting convoys in the Atlantic at a time when the U-boats, operating from newly acquired bases on the Atlantic coast of France were becoming an increasingly serious threat to British shipping. The original armament was four 4-inch (102 mm) guns,〔Campbell 1985 p.143〕 one 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft gun, and twelve torpedo tubes.〔Silverstone 1968 p.103〕 On the ''Wickes'' class, the 4-inch gun placement was one gun in a shield on the forecastle, one on the quarterdeck and one each side on a platform between the number 2 and number 3 funnels. The Admiralty promptly removed one of the 4-inch guns and six torpedo tubes to improve stability.〔Lenton&Colledge 1968 pp.80〕 Twenty-three of the class had further armament reductions for anti-submarine escort of trade convoys.〔Lenton&Colledge 1968 pp.80&90–92〕 Two of the remaining 4-inch guns and three of the remaining torpedo tubes were removed to allow increased depth charge stowage and installation of Hedgehog anti-submarine mortar system.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Town-class destroyer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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