Supertest: U.S Tier IX Premium Destroyer Benham
3 min readLadies and Gentlemen, let’s have a look at the second ship in my little list, the Benham!
The USS Benham was the lead ship of the Benham-class of destroyers from the United States Navy. Built under the restriction of the Washington Naval Treaty, the ships were built and commissioned in the late 1930s. All 10 ships of the class saw extensive action during World War II with only 2 getting sunk including the Benham. The rest will be either scrapped or used during Operation Crossroad and scuttled later.
As for the Benham, she was first serving in the Atlantic ocean before being transferred in the Pacific in April 1940. She escorted for a time the USS Enterprise and Saratoga and will take part to the Battle of Midway during which she rescued survivors from the USS Yorktown and USS Hammann.
It is during the Battle of Guadalcanal that the ship would meet her end after being hit by a torpedo on the bow. The crew tried to retreat but the ship was in the end abandoned and sank on the 15th of November 1942.
Hull | Engine | Gun Fire Control System | Main battery | Torpedoes |
Benham |
Propulsion: 50 000 HP |
Mk9 mod. 1 |
127 mm/38 Mk24 mod. 11 |
533 mm Mk15
|
| Tier | IX |
| Health | 14 500 HP |
| Main Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 12.600 km |
| 127 mm/38 Mk30 mod. 0 127 mm/38 Mk24 mod. 11 | 2 x 1 127 mm 2 x 1 127 mm |
| Torpedo Armament | |
| Maximum Firing Range | 9.200 km |
| 533 mm Mk15 | 4 x 4 533 mm |
| Maximum speed | 36.5 kt |
| Turning Circle Radius | 560 m |
| Rudder Shift Time | 3.4 s |
| Surface Detectability | 7.6 km |
| Air Detectability | 2.9 km |
| Detectability After Firing Main Gus in Smoke | 2.8 km |
| 2 × 1 127 mm/38 Mk30 mod. 0 2 x 1 127 mm/38 Mk24 mod. 11 | |
| 180 Degree Turn Time | 6.0 s |
| Reloading Time | 3.3 s |
| Optimal front firing angle | 36° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 30° |
| Sigma | 2.00 sigma |
| Maximum Dispersion | 110 m |
| Shells | |
| Type of Projectile | HE |
| Alpha Damage | 1 800 HP |
| Damage | 380 HP |
| HE penetration | 20 mm |
| Explosion Size | 0.38 |
| Chance to Cause Fire | 5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 792 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.347 |
| Projectile Mass | 24.5 |
| Projectile Krupp | 1350 |
| Type of Projectile | AP |
| Alpha Damage | 2 100 HP |
| Chance to Cause Fire | -0.5 % |
| Projectile Speed | 792 m/s |
| Air Drag | 0.347 |
| Projectile Mass | 25 |
| Projectile Krupp | 2 598 |
| Projectile Detonator | 0.01 s |
| 4 x 4 533 mm Mk15 | |
| Reloading Time | 98 s |
| Maximum Distance | 9.2 km |
| Optimal front firing angle | 35° |
| Optimal rear firing angle | 30° |
| Damage | 16 633 |
| Speed | 55 kt |
| Surface Detectability | 1.1 km |
| 2 × 1 127 mm/38 Mk30 mod. 0 2 x 1 127 mm/38 Mk24 mod. 11 | |
| Sector range | 0.9 km – 5.8 km |
| Hit chance | 97 % |
| Sector’s damage | 220 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 3.30 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 67 |
| Flak clouds number | 2 |
| Flak cloud damage | 1470 |
| 4 x 1 12.7 mm Browning M2 mod. 2 | |
| Sector range | 0.1 km – 0.9 km |
| Hit chance | 93 % |
| Sector’s damage | 90 |
| Sector’s damage frequency | 1.38 s |
| Sector’s damage per second | 65 |
| Sector reinforcement | |
| Sector reinforcement bonus | +50% |
| Sector reinforcement time | 5 s |
| Sector reinforcement shift time | 5 s |
Slot 1 | Slot 2 | Slot 3 |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 60 s |  Number of charges: 2 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 240 s Radius: 450 m Lifetime: 127s |  Number of charges: 2 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 180 s Boost: +8% maximum speed |
 Work time: 5 s Cooldown: 40 s |  Number of charges: 3 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 160 s Radius: 450 m Lifetime: 127s |  Number of charges: 3 Work time: 120 s Cooldown: 120 s Boost: +8% maximum speed |
Number of charges: 3 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 120 s | ||
Number of charges: 4 Work time: 30 s Cooldown: 80 s |
The armor analysis
Well, it’s a destroyer… The hull is protected by 19 mm of armor. The superstructure is 13 mm thick.
For the turrets, the 2 front turrets are protected by 20 mm of armor and at the rear, the 2 gun mounts have a small protection of 6 mm.
Personal opinion on the ship
This ship… I’m not sure if you can consider it a tier IX. The HP pool is very low, the only has 4 guns compared to 5 for the Fletcher. The concealment is also worse than Fletcher.
As for the anti-air, the ship has early World War II anti-air which means that she basically only has her 127 mm guns to defend herself.
The torpedoes are those of the stock Fletcher and even though on paper you have 16 torpedoes, it’s in the end only 8 per side.
Frankly, right now, I rate this ship with a meh/10. If the point was to make her a torpedo focused destroyer, she would need better torpedoes and better concealment.
About Author
Just an observation here: in the “Characteristics” section, it still says “Tier VIII”. Is that correct? Moreover, torpedo speed 36,5 knots… is that a typo, or does she actually beat USS Black as the destroyer with the slowest torps in the game?!? Apart from that, having 8 torpedoes per side makes it sound like an American Kitakami to me, yummy!!! 🙂
Corrected for the tier but the speed is the one of the ship, not the torpedoes.
Ah, thank you. I misread that. What is the speed of the torpedoes then? (I believe I read somewhere that this would be 55 kts., yet not sure if that is correct)