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The ''John C. Butler''-class destroyer escort originated during World War II. The lead ship was , commissioned on 31 March 1944. The class was also known as the WGT type from their Westinghouse Geared Turbine drive.〔''U.S. Destroyers, an illustrated design history'' by Norman Friedman. Chapter 7. ISBN 1-55750-442-3.〕 Of the 293 ships originally planned, 206 were canceled in 1944 and a further four after being laid down; three were not completed until after the end of World War II. ==History== The standard armament for the class was two dual purpose guns, four 40 mm and ten 20 mm anti-aircraft guns, and three torpedo tubes. It also carried two depth charge racks, eight depth charge projectors and one hedgehog projector as secondary weapons. The ships had a maximum speed of . The most notable ship of this class was , which gained fame during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, where it, along with several other ships engaged a number of cruisers and battleships of the Imperial Japanese Navy in a torpedo attack, where it was sunk after taking several hits. During this action, ''Samuel B. Roberts'' achieved a speed of for over an hour by running her engines at . The other two ships of this class lost were USS Shelton and USS Eversole Also notable was the USS Tabberer (DE-418) for which Captain Henry Lee Plage earned the Legion of Merit, while the entire crew earned the Navy's Unit Commendation Ribbon for taking the initiative to rescue other ships after disastrous storm. In December 1944, the ship lost her mast and radio antennas riding out Typhoon Cobra, which killed 790 sailors (more than were lost at the battles of Midway and Coral Sea combined). Though damaged and unable to radio for help, she was first on the scene to recover 55 of only 93 total rescued from three destroyers which capsized in the heavy seas. A floating history museum of the destroyer escorts resides in Albany, NY.〔(Destroyer Escort Historical Museum )〕 USS ''Slater'' (DE 766) (a related ''Cannon''-class DE) is docked during temperate months on the Hudson River in Albany, New York. An ''Edsall''-class destroyer escort, USS ''Stewart'', is also on display as a museum ship in Galveston, Texas. 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「John C. Butler-class destroyer escort」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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