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A cursory glance at the stats of these ships doesn't give me much to go on. I can't discern any real difference between the two.

Is this just for flavour, or do my weary eyes miss something looking at the ship database (in game)?

"LB" and "HB" stood for "Low Bridge" and "High Bridge", respectively. It refers to the design of the forward superstructure, which was lowered somewhat about a third of the way through the total construction run in order to improve fields of fire for anti-aircraft guns.

It has no ingame effect.

T -

Always welcome your input - I learned something new.

Mac

Hum, You do learn something new every day.
Cheers. GP

I didn't realize the later Fletchers had a lowered bridge. The bridge design changed pretty dramatically the early bridge was very rounded, almost art deco looking. The later bridge was squared off and looked much more modern. I've seen them described as square and round bridge versions.

Bill

Those were other terms for them.

The biggest reason was to speed up construction. The lower box bridges took less time to build.

Squared off structures were easier to build too.

Bill

I believe the rounded, streamlined bridge was introduced on the Sims class, since it reduced wind resistance and turbulence.

However, it did make the destroyers more top-heavy, another reason I believe they changed the Fletcher class to the square, low bridge.

With all the upgrades during the war US destroyers got increasingly top heavy.

Bill

Very interesting! I knew that the abbreviations reflected the change in bridge design on the Fletchers, but I had never been able to figure out what HB and LB actually stood for!