| United Kingdom Royal Navy “tar” sailors raise the Union Jack on former United States Navy destroyers in a public ceremony in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This photo was circulated circa September 18-19, 1940, to newspapers internationally. The destroyers-for-bases deal was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940, according to which 50 Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class United States Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for land rights for air and sea bases on British possessions, in Newfoundland, Canada and Antigua, Bahamas, Guiana, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad, British West Indies. Generally referred to as the “twelve-hundred-ton type” (also known as “flush-deck,” or “four-pipers” after their 4 funnels), the destroyers became the British Town class and were named after towns common to both countries. US President Franklin Roosevelt used an executive agreement, which does not require congressional approval. However, he came under heavy attack from antiwar Americans, who pointed out that the agreement violated the Neutrality Acts. Late on September 3, the 1st contingent of destroyers was ordered to leave Boston. Departing for Halifax early on September 4, they arrived there on September 6. By what United Kingdom Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) chose to describe as “the long arm of coincidence,” the 1st group of British crews arrived at Halifax as several of the destroyers were entering port. Within hours, the skeleton crews aboard the United States destroyers were instructing their British counterparts about the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of the aged ships. This training, along with checking stores and spare parts and conducting operational trials, continued for the next 2 days. On September 9, the 1st 8 destroyers were transferred by formal ritual. The ships were no longer considered to be in the United States Naval service, but they still flew the United States ensign. At 0800 Hours local time all but a group of 4 or 5 key members of each ship’s American crew left the ship and formed into ranks on the pier. There was not a British sailor in sight. The ensigns were hauled down, and the ships declared decommissioned. 1 officer from each ship stayed aboard, having been designated its custodian. The United States Navy crews marched off the pier, boarded waiting trains and departed for the United States and their new duty stations. After they were gone, at about 1000 Hours, the British crews marched onto the piers. They boarded the ships, accepted custody of them, and placed them in commission as ships of the Royal Navy. After a few more days of trial and training under the guidance of the custodian-officer and his key enlisted men, the remaining United States personnel departed, and the ships prepared to sail for England. The 1st group left on September 15. Plagued by mechanical and operational problems, 3 of these ships were forced to return to Nova Scotia. This was typical of the circumstances which prevailed as the remainder of the destroyers were transferred. On November 26 the transfers were completed. 6 of the 50 ships were commissioned in the Royal Canadian Navy, and Canada retained custody of 1 additional ship which had been seriously damaged in a grounding in Halifax harbor. Of the 43 ships remaining for the Royal Navy, 3 were manned by crews from the Royal Norwegian and Dutch navies. Upon re-commissioning, the ships were re-named after British and United States towns which had the same names (exceptions: USS Herndon became HMS Churchill and USS Hunt became HMS Broadway). As a group, they were known as the Town class destroyers in Royal Navy service. The destroyers continued to encounter difficulties, both mechanical and man made, and were slow to assume the breech-filling role for which they had been intended. But 6 to 8 months after their transfer, the old ships had begun to play a significant part in the war; in 1941 they accounted for 20 to 25 percent of the escort ships available for convoy protection in what has since been designated the Battle of the Atlantic. The Town class destroyers continued to serve the Allied cause throughout the war, although in widely, varying ways. Only a few remained operational as the British and United States navies expanded and assumed the offensive in the war. Some were lost in battle, while others performed heroically. Most were converted to target vessels, training ships or floating barracks, and several were stripped for spare parts. In 1944, 8 were transferred to the Russian Navy. Soon after the war ended, the last of the “antiquated and inefficient” ships which became the Town class destroyers met its long overdue fate, the scrapper’s torch. The deal was, as everyone knew, far more advantageous for the United States than for Britain, and it was deeply resented by the British government. Nonetheless, the British had little choice but to accept what they considered grossly unfair terms. “This rather smacks of Russia’s demands on Finland,” John “Jock” Colville (January 28, 1915 – November 19, 1987), a private secretary to Churchill, wrote sourly in his diary. The British felt even more aggrieved when the World War I-era destroyers finally arrived. Dilapidated and obsolete, they could not be used without expensive alteration. “I thought they were the worst destroyers I had ever seen,” fumed Admiral Baron John “Jack” Tovey (March 7, 1885 – January 12, 1971) “Poor seaboats with appalling armament and accommodation. The price paid for them was scandalous.” Equally, irritated, Churchill was nonetheless persuaded by his advisers to couch his concerns in more diplomatic language. In a cable sent to Roosevelt in late 1940, the prime minister said: “We have so far only been able to bring a very few of your fifty destroyers into action on account of the many defects which they naturally develop when exposed to Atlantic weather after having been laid up so long.” Churchill wrote in Their Finest hour, “The transfer to Great Britain of fifty American warships was a decidedly unneutral act by the United States. It would, according to all the standards of history, have justified the German Government in declaring war upon them. The President judged that there was no danger, and I felt there was no hope, of this simple solution of many difficulties. It was Hitler’s interest and method to strike his opponents down one by one. The last thing he wished was to be drawn into war with the United States before he had finished with Britain. Nevertheless the transfer of destroyers to Britain in August, 1940, was an event which brought the United States definitely nearer to us and to the war, and it was the first of a long succession of increasingly unneutral acts in the Atlantic which were of the utmost service to us. It marked the passage of the United States from being neutral to being non-belligerent. Although Hitler could not afford to resent it, all the world, as will be seen, understood the significance of the gesture. For all these reasons the War Cabinet and Parliament approved the policy of leasing the bases to obtain the destroyers, provided we could persuade the West Indian island Governments concerned to make what was to them a serious sacrifice and disturbance of their life for the sake of the Empire. On August 6, Lothian cabled that the President was anxious for an immediate reply about the future of the Fleet. He wished to be assured that if Britain were overrun, the Fleet would continue to fight for the Empire overseas and would not either be surrendered or sunk. This was, it was said, the argument which would have the most effect on Congress in the question of destroyers.” | |
| Image Filename | wwii0369.jpg |
| Image Size | 767.18 KB |
| Image Dimensions | 3000 x 2290 |
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| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 9, 1940 |
| Location | |
| City | Halifax |
| State or Province | Nova Scotia |
| Country | Canada |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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