A statistical ranking misses the central historical question because navies helped shape the weapons they selected. Caliber, mounting, loading arrangements, and rate of fire reflected how each service expected its destroyers to fight. The same gun could also serve destroyers, sloops, corvettes, or other escorts under different assumptions. National design priorities explain why navies accepted different compromises in their destroyer armament.
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Why destroyer-gun choices reveal doctrine
Destroyer-gun development followed each navy's expectations of combat, making doctrine essential to understanding the choice of weapons.