USS Benham (DD-397)

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USS Benham (DD-397)
History
United States
Name	Benham
Namesake	Andrew Ellicot Kennedy Benham
Builder	Federal Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company
Laid down	1 September 1936
Launched	16 April 1938
Commissioned	2 February 1939
Honors and awards	battle stars
Fate	Scuttled following a torpedo hit from the Battle of Guadalcanal,[1] 15 November 1942
General characteristics
Class and type	Benham-class destroyer
Displacement	2,250 tons (full)
Length	340 ft 9 in (103.86 m)
Beam	35 ft 6 in (10.82 m)
Draft	12 ft 10 in (3.91 m)
Propulsion	50,000 shp (37,000 kW) Westinghouse geared turbines, 2 propellers
Speed	38.5 knots (71.3 km/h; 44.3 mph)
Range	6,500 nmi (12,000 km; 7,500 mi) at 12 knots (22 km/h; 14 mph)
Complement	251 officers and enlisted
Armament	4 × 5 in (130 mm) /38 guns, 4 × .50 cal (12.7 mm) guns, 4 × 4 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes , 2 depth charge tracks

USS Benham (DD-397) was the

Benham joined Task Force 64 on 15 October as a part of the naval covering force off Guadalcanal. On the 15th of November, she took part in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, and alongside the US destroyers Preston, Walke, and Gwim were attacked by the Japanese light cruiser Nagara and the destroyers Ayanami and Uranami. Instantly, Walke was hit by once by a six torpedo spread fired from Ayanami, blowing off Walke's bow as she sank stern last. Preston then exploded following gunfire damage from Nagara, before gunfire damage from both Ayanami and Uranami disabled Gwim (though she survived the battle and was later sunk by a mass torpedo spread at the battle of Kolombangara, July of 1943).^[2]

Benham was then hit by a single torpedo, probably from Uranami, to her bow which severed everything forward of her bridge. Benham stayed afloat, making slow headway towards Guadalcanal during the 15th but, by 16:37, further progress was impossible and her crew abandoned ship. Gwin picked up the survivors, and scuttled the hulk at 19:38 by shell-fire.^[2]

Honors

Benham received five

References

• Brown, David. Warship Losses of World War Two. Arms and Armour, London, Great Britain, 1990.
  ISBN 0-85368-802-8
  .
• Wright, Christopher C. (1986). "The U.S. Fleet at the New York World's Fair, 1939: Some Photographs from the Collection of the Late William H. Davis". Warship International. XXIII (3): 273–285.
  ISSN 0043-0374
  .
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to USS Benham (DD-397).

• history.navy.mil: USS Benham at the Library of Congress Web Archives (archived 2012-10-09)
• navsource.org: USS Benham
• hazegray.org: USS Benham