Angus Konstam, British Lend-Lease Warships 1940-45 (Osprey, 2024)
It is a commonly held belief that Britain was unprepared for the war that descended on it in September 1939. This was apparent in almost all facets of Britain’s defence, from an undermanned and outgunned army to a barely adequate air force. Strategically speaking, however, it was at sea where the situation soon became desperate as vital Atlantic convoys fell prey to the U-boat wolfpacks. Britain needed convoy escort warships and turned to the United States to get them. Naval historian Angus Konstam narrates that story in this brief survey and describes the ships that arrived in the nick of time.
Konstam begins by highlighting Churchill’s need to protect the Atlantic convoys that had become easy pickings for German U-boats. Britain had launched a shipbuilding programme, but that would take time the country might not have; therefore, Churchill begged the Americans to lend him some destroyers. The origins of those destroyers are Konstam’s next port of call, and he provides a potted history of the US destroyer programme from WWI through to the outbreak of the Second World War. To get the destroyers from an isolationist United States, Churchill had to trade some military bases for fifty obsolete warships split between the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy. The transfer began in September 1940.
The transferred destroyers arrived in England for upgrades to make them serviceable for the fight ahead. Konstam describes the destroyers, noting their class and name changes into their new service. He adds that the US transferred other ships, mostly frigates, as the war dragged on. Once in RN hands, the ships were modified for purpose, some more than others, then they were deployed to one of three operational commands: Rosyth Escort, Western Approaches, and the 1st Minelaying Squadron. Konstam examines the capabilities of the Lend-Lease destroyers. Their main purpose was detecting and combating submarines, which meant adding Asdic to find the U-boats and depth charges to sink them. They also maintained guns for hitting surface targets when required. As an old destroyer sailor, I was amused at Konstam’s depiction of the crews of the destroyers hating life on board; the crews of the Captain-class frigates, on the other hand, lived in relative luxury by comparison. Konstam closes with on overview of the Lend-Lease ships in action, including the St Nazaire raid and HMS Campbeltown, formerly the USS Buchanan. However, that was an atypical use of a Lend-Lease ship and Konstam narrates the more typical adventures of the ill-fated HMS Stanley and HMS Bentinck as they tackled the U-boats. A list of ships in their groups completes Konstam’s survey.
Lend-Lease ships are probably not the sexiest naval topic to write about, but Konstam does a good job of describing them and their history. The introduction is a wee bit long when more room could have been used to extend the narrative of how these ships performed and what it was like to serve on them, though the latter aspect is at least included, which many books of this nature omit. Nevertheless, Konstam has written a neat and tidy overview, and he was assisted admirably by Osprey’s usual high quality artwork and many photographs of the ships. Naval history students of World War II will enjoy this work as will those interested in the submarine campaign in the unforgiving Atlantic.
