Bagley-class destroyers in World War II

Eight ships of the Bagley class were ordered and laid down in 1935. Designed by the navy, their single-stack layout was similar to that of the contemporary Bethlehem-designed Gridley class—16 tubes and four 5-inch guns—but they carried over the machinery and 48,000 shp of
TORPEDO BATTERY
Sixteen 21-inch: two quadruple wing mounts abaft the stack on each side of the main deck
MAIN GUN BATTERY
Four dual purpose 5-inch/38:
l Two forward in enclosed base ring mounts
l Two aft in open pedestal mounts
ANTI-AIRCRAFT BATTERY
1938: Four .50 cal machine guns
1945: One 40mm twin; six 20mm singles
the earlier Mahans, designed for 36.9 knots (vs. the Gridleys’ 38.7). Their most prominent differentiating feature was the external trunking of their boiler uptakes.
   All eight ships were commissioned between June and October 1937 and retained their full compliment of torpedo tubes throughout their careers. Survivors received increased anti-aircraft armament (including one superimposed 40mm twin aft—see photo of Mugford, below) as World War II progressed.
   In December 1941, all eight Bagleys were present at Pearl Harbor as Destroyer Squadron 4 with Selfridge as flagship. After participating in carrier raids early in 1942, they were transferred to Australia in June, then to Guadalcanal. In the thick of the action there, Jarvis was lost with all hands and Blue was scuttled to avoid capture after being surprised and USS Mugford torpedoed by an enemy destroyer, while Mugford, Patterson, Helm and Ralph Talbot were damaged.
   An enemy submarine sank Henley off New Guinea in 1943 and an enemy plane crashed Mugford off Leyte in December 1944, putting her out of action for six months. Operating thereafter as DesRon 6, the other four all earned 11 or more stars, with Ralph Talbot sustaining a kamikaze hit off Okinawa. Bagley accepted the surrender of Japanese forces on Marcus Island
   Mugford and Ralph Talbot, still in commission, were targets at Bikini atomic bomb tests in 1946; contaminated but not sunk, they were scuttled in deep water off Kwajalein 1948. The other three were decommissioned in 1945 and scrapped in 1947.