page_title: Destroyers-for-bases deal
section_title: The deal
hierarchical_section_title: Destroyers-for-bases deal / The deal
caption_attribution_description: Royal Navy and U.S. Navy sailors inspect depth charges aboard Wickes-class destroyers, in 1940. In the background are USS Buchanan (DD-131), and USS Crowninshield (DD-134). On 9 September 1940 both were transferred to the Royal Navy. Buchanan became HMS Campbeltown (I42), which was expended as a demolition ship during St. Nazaire Raid on 29 March 1942. Crowninshield became HMS Chelsea (I35) which was transferred to Russia on 16 July 1944 and renamed Derzkiy. She was finally returned to the UK for scrapping on 23 June 1949.
context_page_description: 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 US Navy destroyers were transferred to the Royal Navy from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions.
  Generally referred to as the "twelve hundred-ton type", the destroyers became the British Town class and were named after towns common to both the US and Britain. Roosevelt used an executive agreement that did not require Congressional approval, but he came under heavy attack from antiwar political elements. The agreement violated the Neutrality Acts.
context_section_description: President Roosevelt approved the deal on the evening of August 30, 1940. On September 2, 1940, as the Battle of Britain intensified, Secretary of State Cordell Hull signaled agreement to the transfer of the warships to the Royal Navy. On September 3, 1940, Admiral Harold Stark certified that the destroyers were not vital to the security of the US. In exchange, the US was granted land in various British possessions for the establishment of naval or air bases with rent-free, 99-year leases, on:
  Newfoundland
  Eastern side of the Bahamas
  Southern coast of Jamaica
  Western coast of Saint Lucia
  West coast of Trinidad (Gulf of Paria)
  Antigua
  British Guiana (present day Guyana) within fifty miles of Georgetown
  The agreement also granted the US air and naval base rights in:
  The Great Sound and Castle Harbour, Bermuda
  South and eastern coasts of Newfoundland
  No destroyers were received in exchange for the bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland. Both territories were vital to trans-Atlantic shipping, aviation, and to the Battle of the Atlantic. Although enemy attack on either was unlikely, it could not be discounted, and Britain had been forced to wastefully maintain defensive forces, including the Bermuda Garrison. The deal allowed Britain to hand much of the defence of Bermuda to the still-neutral US, freeing British forces for redeployment to more active theatres. It also enabled the development of strategic facilities at US expense which British forces would also use.
  The Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) each maintained air stations in Bermuda at the start of the war, but these only served flying boats. The RAF station on Darrell's Island served as a staging point for trans-Atlantic flights by RAF Transport Command and RAF Ferry Command, BOAC, and Pan-Am, as well as hosting the Bermuda Flying School, but did not operate maritime patrols. The FAA station on Boaz Island, existed to service aircraft based on vessels operating from or through the Royal Naval Dockyard, but attempted to maintain maritime patrols using pilots from naval ships, RAF Darrell's Island, and the Bermuda Flying School.
  The agreement for bases in Bermuda stipulated that the US would, at its own expense, build an airfield, capable of handling large landplanes, which would be operated jointly by the US Army Air Force and the Royal Air Force. The airfield was named Kindley Field (after Field Kindley, an American aviator who fought for Britain during the First World War). RAF Transport Command relocated its operations to the airfield when it was completed in 1943, although RAF Ferry Command remained at Darrell's Island. Prior to this, the US Navy had established the Naval Operating Base at Bermuda's West End. This was a flying boat station, from which maritime patrols were operated for the remainder of the war (the US Navy had actually begun operating such patrols from RAF Darrell's Island, using floatplanes, while waiting for their own base to become operational). The RAF and FAA facilities were closed after the war, leaving only the US air bases in Bermuda. The Naval Operating Base ceased to be an air station in 1965, when its flying boats were replaced by Lockheed P-2 Neptunes, operating from the Kindley Air Force Base (as the former US Army airfield had become). These US air bases were in fact only two of several US military facilities that operated in Bermuda during the 20th Century. The US abandoned many of these bases in 1949 and the remaining few were closed in 1995.
  The US accepted the "generous action… to enhance the national security of the United States" and immediately transferred in return 50 Caldwell, Wickes, and Clemson-class U.S. Navy destroyers, "generally referred to as the twelve hundred-ton type" (also known as "flush-deckers", or "four-pipers" after their four funnels). Forty-three ships initially went to the British Royal Navy and seven to the Royal Canadian Navy. In the Commonwealth navies, the ships were renamed after towns, and were therefore known as the "Town" class, although they had originally belonged to three classes (Cal
caption: American and British sailors examine depth charges. In the background are US Wickes-class destroyers before their transfer
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