G-class destroyer (1944)


The G-class destroyers were a proposed class of eight destroyers of the Royal Navy ordered during the Second World War under the 1944 Programme. Two were ordered on 24 July 1944, and six more on 30 August 1944, but all were cancelled on 13 December 1945, after the end of the war.
The class was to be an improvement on the. It has been referred to as the Gael class or Gallant class of destroyers.

Design

The G-class destroyers were proposed for the Royal Navy's shipbuilding programme as a follow-on to the Weapon class. Like the Weapons, the G class were meant as a smaller destroyer, capable of being built in facilities that could not manage the larger or ships. The major change was to replace the Weapons' main gun armament of six 4-inch guns with four 4.5 inch guns in the new Mk. VI twin mountings.
The new class used the same machinery as the Weapon class, arranged in the "unit" system, with two separate boiler rooms and engine rooms, meaning that a single hit was unlikely to cause a total loss of power. Two Foster-Wheeler boilers fed steam at and to a pair of geared steam turbines, generating and driving two propeller shafts. This was intended to give a maximum speed of. While the hull, with a length of between perpendiculars and overall, was of similar design to that of the Weapons, the design's beam increased from to to accommodate the greater top-weight of the ships' armament and fire control equipment.
The two dual-purpose 4.5 inch mounts, capable of firing a shell to a range of at a rate of 12 rounds per barrel per minute, were mounted one forward and one aft. Close in anti-aircraft armament consisted of six Bofors 40 mm guns, with two twin mounts and two single mounts. Ten 21 inch torpedo tubes were fitted, in two quintuple mounts.

Ships