With due respect to the Sumner and Gearing Class DDs and those who sailed in them, but I believe the Fletcher Class DD was on appearance, the single most beautiful warship ever designed. It was visual perfection.
I agree, but the Sumner and Gearing were much more heavily armed with dual 5” turrets, whereas the Fletcher had only single turrets.
I think, as an amateur historian, that the single most important advantage we had was probably the radar directors in the main batteries, without which air power and superior numbers of adversary surface forces may have likely changed the outcome. This proved to be a heavy, if not decisive advantage in several surface engagements in the Second World War.
Superior US military technology. Nothing like it.