| Would be a better looking ship if they had a second twin gun turret in front of the bridge ! Is this a take off of the Fletcher design? |
It used to have a second twin gun house forward. This is a Porter class destroyer. They were started in 1933 and intended to be squadron leaders. The twin 5" gun houses used single purpose Mk. 22 guns and were not capable of anti-aircraft fire. This became a huge liability by 1944 so several of the surviving ships had extensive AA refits. Phelps was one of them. Here is a model of Porter (in 1/1250) showing here in her 1942 configuration with the as built main gun configuration. As built these ships had far fewer light AA guns. In fact when comissioned the AA battery was only two quad 1.1 mounts and two .50 caliber machine guns. The Porters were the first ships to mount the quad 1.1 guns.
