Publisher's Synopsis
The US Navy's Sumner-Gearing-class destroyers served as a standard for post-World War II destroyer design and development. Their evolution over the course of nearly 40 years and three wars is fully covered in this illustrated book.;Robert Sumrall traces the origins of these destroyers through half a century of changing naval technology, showing the great advances made in ordnance, fire control and steam engineering.;As the author makes clear, the class was as much a product of world events as of bureaucratic decisions. The Sumners and their long-hulled sisters, the Gearings, were designed and built in the midst of World War II, and adapted and modernized during the Cold War.;Using an extensive source list, the book describes the ships as they were first completed and in later variations into the 1970s, when these ageing warships continued to play a role in the destroyer force. Examples of both classes were in service in other navies around the world as late as 1994. Robert Sumrall is the author of "Iowa-Class Battleships".
