On 2 September 1940, in response to two requests by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in May and June of that year, the Congress of the United States approved a deal brokered by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to transfer 50 old destroyers to bolster British escort forces in the face of heavy destroyer losses suffered by the Royal Navy due to Dunkirk and other costly operations. By the date the deal was approved, the RN had lost 33 destroyers of all types, the majority being modern, capable units. As a result of this agreement, the US gained basing rights at such locations as Argentia, Newfoundland, Canada, Bermuda Island and various Caribbean locations.

Following the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, the ability of the Danish government to conduct any kind of independent foreign policy was curtailed. This was realized by the Danish ambassador in Washington, Mr. Kaufmann, who immediately declared himself independent from the Danish government. In accordance with US wishes, he therefore took upon himself to conclude an agreement in April, 1941, by which the US agreed to defend Greenland and Iceland, thereby gaining bases in those places to support the convoy lanes to Britain.

Between 9 September and 5 December 1940, the USN transferred 3 Shaw, 23 Wickes and 18 Clemson Class destroyers to the RN and 4 Wickes and 2 Clemson Class destroyers to the Royal Canadian Navy. The new HMS Hamilton (ex-USS Kalk) was damaged in a collision with the new HMS Georgetown and subsequently transferred from the RN to the RCN, becoming the HMCS Hamilton. In 1941, ten US Coast Guard 250-foot cutters were also transferred to Britain.

The destroyers transferred to the RN were given town names common to both Britain and the United States, as was the HMCS Annapolis. The other five ships transferred directly to the RCN were given the names of Canadian rivers. The destroyers in British service were known as the "Town Class" and broken into the "Belmont," "Lewes," "Campbeltown," and "Bath" groups. The former Coast Guard cutters were known as the "Banff" class and were designated as Escort Sloops.

The Belmont Group comprised the Clemson Class ships and the Lewes Group the Shaw Class ships. The Wickes Class ships were split between the Campbeltown Group with 75 tons more fuel and therefor greater range, and the Bath Group, comprising the remaining ships without increased bunkerage.

At the time of transfer, none of the US ships had been modified for anti-submarine warfare, much less received the "escort modification" later applied to a number of these ships remaining in USN service. Some ships required as much as four months of yard work before being considered suitable for use by the British. Royal Navy ship handlers complained about the ships' excessive tactical diameter and their liveliness in North Atlantic seas due to their very fine hull dimensions. Ratings found the ships' layout, accommodations and appointments alien, but adapted readily. During their service with the RN and RCN most of these ships lost two or three 4" SP guns, their antiquated 3" anti-aircraft gun and AA machine guns in favor of more modern RN weapons. Torpedo armament was quickly halved and in some cases relocated to the centerline. More depth charge stowage, K-gun and Y-gun depth charge projectors and eventually the Hedgehog ASW mortars were added. Sensor upgrades included the addition of radar, high frequency direction finding (HF/DF or "Huff Duff") equipment and improved ASDIC ("sonar" in US parlance).

Although some authors have made much of the contribution of these ships, even to the point of claiming they "saved the world," their primary benefit was to provide the British and Canadians with a large number of escort platforms - although of no great technical capability - until those nations could get sufficient numbers of modern destroyers and smaller escorts afloat to replace them. As new ships became available, the transferred vessels were rapidly withdrawn from escort duty and paid off or moved to such auxiliary roles as mobile aircraft target towing. Some were transferred to yet other Allied navies, including the free Norwegian and free Polish Navies, as well as to the Soviet Navy.

Ten of the destroyers and three of the cutters transferred were lost, as detailed below. One destroyer was rendered a constructive total loss (CTL) by bomb damage before it ever completed its initial yard work in Britain and was then used for testing and finally sold for scrap in 1944. Another destroyer was mined. Seven destroyers and one cutter fell to U-boat torpedoes. In retaliation, these transferred ships destroyed or assisted in the destruction of ten German U-boats and one Italian submarine, while two assisted in the capture and salvage of another U-boat. One of the ten U-boats sunk was the U-110, which was boarded and raided before it could founder, resulting in the capture of the Enigma coding machine, its coding wheels and cipher books.

One of the destroyers lost achieved unique fame; HMS Campbeltown being expended as a floating bomb in a daring commando attack in which it rammed the gates of the Normandie Lock at Saint-Nazaire, a French city on the Biscay Coast. The ship was then blown up with a delay fuze to permit the crew time to escape. The Campbeltown's explosive exploit ensured that the German battleship Tirpitz would find no repair base in the Atlantic should she break out of the Arctic, diminishing the raider threat and making Campbeltown the most famous of the transferred destroyers.

• ^1.11.21.3Part of British "Town" Class, Lewes Group.
• ^2.12.22.32.42.52.62.72.82.92.102.112.12Part of British "Town" Class, Campbeltown Group.
• ^3.13.23.33.43.53.63.73.83.93.10Part of British "Town" Class, Bath Group.
• ^4.14.24.34.44.54.64.74.84.94.104.114.124.134.144.154.164.174.18Part of British "Town" Class, Belmont Group.
• ^In January 1941 HMS Campeltown (ex-USS Buchanan) was provisionally allocated to the Royal Netherlands Navy, but she reverted back to the Royal Navy in September 1941.

• "Hitler's U-boat War, Volumes One and Two" by Clay Blair.
• "Destroyers of the World, An International Encyclopedia" by M.J. Whitley.
• "U.S. Destroyers, An Illustrated Design History" by Norman Friedman.
• "Warships of World War II" by H.T. Lenton & J.J. Colledge
• "US Warships of World War II" by Paul Silverstone
• Ken Laesser's Coast Guard page
• HyperWar
• "The History of Denmark, Volume II" by John Danstrup, 1946
• "Axis Submarine Successes of World War Two" by Jurgen Rohwer
• "R.Smg. Pietro Calvi" at regiamarina.net
• Special thanks to Johan Lupander, George Duffy and Bogdan Zemanek.

4 October 2006

Benchmark

27 July 2010

Corrected spelling of Polish submarine Jastrzab

28 July 2014

Deleted USS Graham, added USS Satterlee