Buenos Aires-class destroyer

	ARA Buenos Aires
Class overview
Name	Buenos Aires class
Builders	Vickers Armstrong, John Brown, Cammell Laird, UK
Operators	Argentine Navy
Preceded by	Mendoza class
Succeeded by	Brown class
Built	1936–1938
In commission	1938–73
Completed	7
Lost	1
Retired	6
General characteristics
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,375 t (1,353 long tons) standard; 2,042 t (2,010 long tons) full load;
Length	98.45 m (323 ft 0 in)
Beam	10.38 m (34 ft 1 in)
Draught	3.2 m (10 ft 6 in)
Propulsion	2 shaft geared Parsons steam turbines, three boilers, 25,000 kW (34,000 hp)
Speed	35 knots (65 km/h; 40 mph)
Range	4,100 nmi (7,600 km) at 14 kn (26 km/h; 16 mph)
Complement	130
Armament	4 × 4.7 in (120 mm) QF Mark IX guns (4 × 1); 8 × 0.50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns ; 8 × 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes (2 × 4);

The Buenos Aires-class destroyers were a group of destroyers built for the Argentine Navy in Britain in the 1930s.

Design[]

ARA Corrientes sinking after collision with cruiser Almirante Brown on 3 October 1941

The ships were based on the contemporary G-class destroyers building for the British Royal Navy, with some modifications to suit Argentine requirements.

After World War II these ships were modified by installing two single hand-worked 40 mm (1.6 in) Bofors guns between the funnels replacing the original 76 mm (3 in) anti-aircraft gun and two twin air-cooled Bofors unique to the Argentine and Swedish navies (instead of the more common water-cooled mounts) replacing the after bank of torpedo tubes. Radar and sonar was also fitted at this time and Santa Cruz landed "B" gun in favor of a pair of Hedgehog anti-submarine weapons.

Ships[]

Ship	Builder	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
ARA Buenos Aires (T6 / D6)	Vickers-Armstrong, Barrow	21 September 1937	4 April 1938	Scrapped 1971
(T8)		21 September 1937	1 July 1938	Sunk in collision with cruiser ARA Almirante Brown, 3 October 1941
(T7 / D7)		21 September 1937	15 May 1938	Scrapped 1973
(T11 / D11)	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead	23 September 1937	5 September 1938	Scrapped 1971
(T9 / D9)	John Brown & Company, Clydebank	24 June 1937	23 March 1938	Scrapped 1973
(T10 / D10)	John Brown & Company, Clydebank	23 August 1937	23 March 1938	Scrapped 1971
(T12 / D12)	Cammell Laird	3 November 1937	26 September 1938	Scrapped 1973

Operational history[]

ARA Corrientes collided with cruiser ARA Almirante Brown in the fog during naval exercises and sank on 3 October 1941, 54 nm northeast of Mar del Plata.^[1]

On 19 September 1955, San Luis, San Juan and Entre Rios supported cruiser ARA Nueve de Julio when the latter shelled and destroyed fuel depots at the port of Mar del Plata, in the course of the Revolucion Libertadora. The destroyers' fire kept at bay a group of armed civilians and soldiers attempting to storm the local naval base. Some civilian property was damaged. The destroyer force also shelled the headquarters of the Army Antiaircraft School, north of the city, some hours later.^[2]

References[]

Notes[]

^ "El Choque y Hundimiento del Torpedero "Corrientes"". www.histarmar.com.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-12-10.
^ "Hace 61 años bombardeaban el puerto de Mar del Plata". Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2017-12-10.

Bibliography[]

Whitley, M.J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Cassell Publishing. ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
Montehengo, Guillermo J. An Argentinian Naval Buildup in the Disarmament Era. Warship 2002-2003. Conway's Maritime Press.

External links[]

(in Spanish) Destroyers ("Destructores (Tambien llamados Torpederos)") – Histarmar website (accessed 2017-02-04)

[1] "El Choque y Hundimiento del Torpedero "Corrientes"". www.histarmar.com.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 2017-12-10.

[2] "Hace 61 años bombardeaban el puerto de Mar del Plata". Diario La Capital de Mar del Plata (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2017-12-10.

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