HMS Saintes (1945)

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The Battle class destroyer leaders were ordered in 1942-43 under the 5th and 6th War Emergency programs. These were ordered in answer to the large destroyers that the Italians (Capitan Romano), Germans (Z54) and Japanese (Akizuki) were building. The Italian ships were eventually rated as Anti-aircraft cruisers which shows the size of ship the Battles were designed to combat. It may sound strange that so much information on what the enemy was building could be available to the Allies for them to base their building programs on. But there were many disaffected people in those countries that were willing to supply information, and radio and wireless intercepts. Put all the gathered information together and a very good idea of what is being built can be seen.



With the semi-auto 4.5" being fitted fore and aft both fore and aft magazines needed to be at least 50% bigger than previous ships. The amount of rounds per gun was increased by the same 50% as the faster firing guns would empty the magazines so fast they could run out of ammunition before their missions were complete. The size of the ship required to take all the armament, electronics, and gunnery controllers, was huge for a destroyer. Just 20 years before, ships this size were classed as cruisers.

These ships, along with the later Daring class, were the main escorts to the big carriers during the 1950's and 60's. The other wartime destroyers went through many rebuilds and refits to mount new armaments till they were no longer a viable option financially. The Battle class also went through plenty of refitting and rebuilding, losing the Y turret to a Limbo mounting, which started being fitted to the ships from 1955 onward. A total of 44 of the class were ordered, but only 24 of the class were completed the rest being cancelled, construction halted at wars end. Some of the later ships were re-ordered as Daring class ships and completed to that design.


The big Mk VI gunnery controller is very apparent in this photo, mounted at the back of the bridge.
 

Original time line ships, information copy pasted from Wiki.

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