SUMNER GEARING CLASS DESTROYERS

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".