Destroyer escort
A
Destroyer Escort (DE) is classification for a small, comparatively slower
warship designed to be used to escort
convoys of
merchant marine ships, primarily of the
United States Navy in
WWII. It is usually employed primarily for
anti-submarine warfare, but also some protection against aircraft and smaller attack vessels in this application. The US built roughly 457 Destroyer escorts spread out over 8 classes. The
Royal Navy's equivalent warship was known as the
Frigate, although somewhat confusingly they referred to the
Hunt class and similar ships as "escort destroyers".
The
Lend-lease Act was passed into law in the USA in March 1941 enabling the
United Kingdom to procure merchant ships, warships and munitions etc from the USA, in order to help with the war effort. This enabled the UK to commission the USA to design, build and supply an escort vessel that was suitable for anti submarine warfare in deep open ocean situations, which they did in June 1941. Captain E.L. Cochrane of the
American Bureau of Shipping came up with a design which was known as the
British Destroyer Escort (BDE) but this was soon reduced to Destroyer Escort (DE).
When the United States entered the war, and found they also required an Anti-Submarine warfare ship and that the Destroyer Escort fitted their needs perfectly, a system of rationing was put in place whereby out of every five Destroyer Escorts completed four would be allocated to the U.S. Navy and one to the British Royal Navy.
A
Destroyer Escort (DE) is classification for a small, comparatively slower
warship designed to be used to escort
convoys of
merchant marine ships, primarily of the
United States Navy,
Royal Navy and the
Free French Navy in
WWII. It is usually employed primarily for
anti-submarine warfare, but also some protection against aircraft and smaller attack vessels in this application.
Full size
destroyers must be able to keep up with and exceed the speed of fast
capital ships, typically needing better than 25-35 knot speeds (dependent upon the era and navy) and carrying
torpedoes and a relatively smaller caliber of cannon to use against enemy ships, as well as anti-submarine detection equipment and weapons.
A destroyer escort need only be able to maneuver relative to a slow convoy, which in
World War II would travel at 10 to 12 knots, and defend itself against aircraft, and to detect, chase down and attack a submerged (3 to 6 knot speed) or surfaced (22 knot speed) submarine. These lower requirements greatly reduce the size, cost and crew required for the destroyer escort. While fleet destroyers were still more effective for anti-submarine warfare, the destroyer escort outweighed this by being able to be built considerably faster. Destroyer escorts were also considerably more seaworthy than
Corvettes.
Destroyer escorts are also useful for coastal anti-submarine and radar picket ship duty.
Some 95 Destroyer escorts were converted to
APDs (High Speed Transports). This involved adding an extra deck which allowed space for about 10 officers and 150 men. Two large davits were also installed, one on either side of the ship from which landing craft (
LCVP) could be launched.
After World War II
United States Navy destroyer escorts were referred to as
ocean escorts, but retained the
hull classification symbol DE. However other navies, most notably those of
NATO countries and the
USSR, followed different naming conventions for this type of ship which resulted in some confusion. In order to remedy this problem the
1975 ship reclassification reclassified ocean escorts (and by extension, destroyer escorts) as
Frigates (FF). This brought the USN's nomenclature more in line with NATO, and made it easier to compare ship types with the Soviet Union (see
Cruiser gap). As of 2006 there are no plans for future frigates for the US Navy. The
DDG Zumwalt and the
Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) are the main ship types planned in this area. One major problem with ship classification is whether to base it on a ship's role (such as escort or air defense), or on its size (such as the amount of tons). One example of this ambiguity are the
Ticonderoga-class air defense ships, which are classified as
cruiser even though they use the same hull of the
Spruance class destroyer.
*
List of destroyer escorts of the United States NavyUnder the
Lend-Lease agreement, the
Royal Navy received 32 destroyer escorts of the
Evarts class and 46 of the
Buckley class. The Royal Navy used the names of captains of the
Napoleonic Wars for the ships; hence these ships are known as the
Captain-class frigates.
The main design difference between the Royal Navy and US Navy ships that the former had the forward
torpedo tubes removed along with the ice-cream makers, the iced-water fountains, the dishwashers and the laundries (some ships). More
depth charges were fitted on the upper deck each side of the ship (allowing for about 200 in total) and the steel work around the
binnacle had to be replaced by non-ferrous materials. Additionally the American
gyrocompasses were replaced with the
Admiralty pattern ones and the MK IV elevating column
Oerlikon mountings were replaced with the simpler MK V1A mountings.
Six
Cannon class Destroyer Escorts were built for the
Free French Navy. Although initially transferred under the
Lend-lease Act these ships were permanently transferred under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program.
List of Free French Destroyer escorts
*
FFL Algérien (F-1), ex-
Cronin (DE-107)
*
FFL Sénégalais (F-2), ex-
Corbestier (DE-106)
*
FFL Somali (F-3), ex-
Somali (DE-111)
*
FFL Hova (F-4), ex-
Hova (DE-110)
*
FFL Marocain (F-5), ex-
Marocain (DE-109)
*
FFL Tunisien (F-6), ex-
Crosley (DE-108)
Under the
Mutual Defense Assistance Program (MDAP) the Destroyer Escorts leased to the Free French were permanently transferred to the French Navy. In addition the following navies also acquired Destroyer Escorts:
French Navy
:DE-1007, DE-1008, DE-1009, DE-1010, DE-1011, DE-1012, DE-1013, DE-1016, DE-1017, DE-1018, DE1019
Italian Navy
:DE-1020, DE-1031
Portuguese Navy
:DE-1032, DE-1039, DE-1042, DE-1046
Netherlands Navy
:DE 195 Burrows, DE 196 Rinehart, DE 182 Gustafson, DE 188 O'Neill, DE 192 Eisner, DE 187 Stern
*
Modern Naval tactics.
*
Frigate*
Destroyer* Lists
**
List of destroyer escorts of the United States Navy***
List of frigates of the United States Navy subset of above with hull numbers DE/FF 1037 and higher plus all DEG/FFGs because of the
United States Navy 1975 ship reclassification**
List of frigates**
Captain class frigate*
http://www.desausa.org/ Destroyer Escort Sailors Association (DESA).
*
http://www.ussslater.org/ USS Slater, the Destroyer Escort Historical Museum.
*
Photos on board the Destroyer Escort USS Slater *
WWII Photos of life on board the Destroyer Escort USS Bangust DE-739 in WWII*
Destroyer Escort Bangust DE-739 Home Page*
http://www.captainclassfrigates.co.uk/ the Captain Class Frigates Association.
*
Escort http://www.uboat.net/* For an excellent book on the subject of a particular example of this type of ship in World War II, the
USS Abercrombie (DE-343) see
Little Ship, Big War: The Saga of DE-343 by Edward Peary Stafford. Naval Institute Press, 2000 ISBN 1557508909
