Destroyers-for-bases deal

The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty destroyers from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. The destroyers became the Town class.

Background

The Second World War started in September 1939. After the brief interlude of the Phony War, the Battle of France saw France and the Low Countries quickly overrun by the Nazi German Blitzkrieg in May 1940. This left the United Kingdom and her Empire standing alone against Hitler.

Although the United States government was sympathetic to Britain's plight, American public opinion at the time overwhelmingly supported isolationism to avoid U.S. involvement in "another European war". Reflecting this sentiment, Congress had passed the Neutrality Act three years previously, which banned the shipment of arms from the U.S. to any combatant nation, unless paid for in cash. Additionally, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was further constrained by the upcoming 1940 Presidential election, as his critics sought to portray him as being pro-war.

By late May, following the evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk, France, in Operation Dynamo, the Royal Navy was in immediate need of ships, especially as they were now facing the Battle of the Atlantic in which German U-boats threatened Britain's supplies of food and other resources essential to the war effort.

With German troops advancing rapidly into France and many in the U.S. Government convinced that the defeat of France and Britain was imminent, the U.S. sent a proposal to the United Kingdom through the British Ambassador, the Marquess of Lothian, for a U.S. lease of airfields in Trinidad, Bermuda, and Newfoundland. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill initially rejected the offer on May 27 unless Britain received something in return. On June 1, as the defeat of France loomed, Roosevelt bypassed the Neutrality Act by declaring "surplus" many millions of rounds of U.S. ammunition and guns, authorizing their shipment to England. But Roosevelt rejected Churchill's pleas for destroyers.

By August, as Britain stood alone against the Nazis, U.S. Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy reported from London that a British surrender was "inevitable". Seeking to persuade Roosevelt to send the destroyers, Churchill warned Roosevelt ominously that if Britain were vanquished, its colonial islands close to American shores could become a direct threat to the U.S. if they fell into German hands.

The deal

Finally, as the Battle of Britain intensified on September 2, 1940, and the Luftwaffe and RAF fought in the skies over England, United States Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, signaled agreement to the transfer of the destroyers to the Royal Navy.

In exchange, the US was granted land in various British possessions for the establishment of naval or air bases, on ninety-nine-year rent-free leases, on:

• Avalon Peninsula
• Eastern side of the Bahamas
• Southern coast of Jamaica
• Western coast of St. Lucia,
• West coast of Trinidad
  • Gulf of Paria,
• Antigua — Antigua Air Station
• British Guiana within fifty miles of Georgetown.

The agreement also stipulated Britain's acceptance of the US proposal for air and naval bases rights in:

• The Great Sound and Castle Harbour, Bermuda
• South and eastern coasts of Newfoundland

The US accepted the "generous action… to enhance the national security of the United States" and immediately transferred fifty United States Navy destroyers "generally referred to as the twelve hundred-ton type" (also known in references as "flush-deck" destroyers, or "four-pipers" after their four funnels) Forty-three went to the Royal Navy and seven to the Royal Canadian Navy. Ships were transferred on from the Royal Navy to the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy and the Soviet Navy.

In the Commonwealth navies the ships were named after towns, and were therefore known as the Town class, although they had originally belonged to three ship classes (the Caldwell, Clemson, and Wickes classes).

External links

• "The New Bases Acquired for old Destroyers" - US military
• Text of the agreement