Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a 20-knot warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships.
The G- and H-class destroyers were a group of 18 destroyers built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Six additional ships being built for the Brazilian Navy when World War II began in 1939 were purchased by the British and named the Havant class. The design was a major export success with other ships built for the Argentine and Royal Hellenic Navies. They were assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet upon completion and enforced the Non-Intervention Agreement during the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939.
USS Slater (DE-766) is a Cannon-class destroyer escort that served in the United States Navy and later in the Hellenic (Greek) Navy. Following service during World War II, the ship was transferred to Greece and renamed Aetos. Decommissioned in 1991, the destroyer escort was returned to the United States.
The Somers-class destroyer was a class of five 1850-ton United States Navy destroyers based on the Porter class. They were answers to the large destroyers that the Japanese navy was building at the time, and were initially intended to be flotilla leaders. They were laid down from 1935–1936 and commissioned from 1937–1939. They were built to round-out the thirteen destroyers of 1,850 tons standard displacement allowed by the tonnage limits of the London Naval Treaty, and were originally intended to be repeat Porters. However, new high-pressure, high-temperature boilers became available, allowing the use of a single stack. This combined with weight savings allowed an increase from two quadruple center-line torpedo tube mounts to three. However, the Somers class were still over-weight and top-heavy. This was the first US destroyer class to use 600 psi (4,100 kPa) steam superheated to 850 °F (454 °C), which became standard for US warships built in the late 1930s and World War II.
Algérien was a Cannon-class destroyer escort originally named USS Cronin (DE-107) after Cornelius Cronin, a sailor who was awarded the Medal of Honor during the American Civil War. She was transferred to the Free French Naval Forces in 1944 and became part of the French Navy post-war. She was rated as a frigate in French service. She was renamed Oise in 1962 and scrapped in 1965.
The Edsall-class destroyer escorts were destroyer escorts built primarily for ocean antisubmarine escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Edsall, was commissioned on 10 April 1943 at Orange, Texas. The class was also known as the FMR type from their Fairbanks-Morse reduction-geared diesel drive, with a type of engine used in the submarines of the time. The FMR's substitution for a diesel-electric power plant was the essential difference from the predecessor Cannon ("DET") class. This was the only World War II destroyer escort class in which all the ships originally ordered were completed as United States Navy destroyer escorts. Destroyer escorts were regular companions escorting the vulnerable cargo ships. Late in the war, plans were made to replace the 3-inch (76 mm) guns with 5-inch (127 mm) guns, but only Camp was refitted. In total, all 85 were completed by two shipbuilding companies: Consolidated Steel Corporation, Orange, Texas (47), and Brown Shipbuilding, Houston, Texas (38). Most were en route to the Pacific Theater when Japan surrendered. One of the ships participated in Operation Dragoon and two were attacked by German guided missiles.
The Cannon class was a class of destroyer escorts built by the United States primarily for antisubmarine warfare and convoy escort service during World War II. The lead ship, USS Cannon, was commissioned on 26 September 1943 at Wilmington, Delaware. Of the 116 ships ordered, 44 were cancelled and six were commissioned directly into the Free French Forces. Destroyer escorts were regular companions escorting vulnerable cargo ships.
USS Snyder (DE-745) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
USS Reybold (DE-177) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys.
USS Eisner (DE-192) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort built for the United States Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and provided escort service against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Eisner was named in honor of Jacques Rodney Eisner who was killed in action during the Battle of Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942 while serving in USS San Francisco. Following the war, the ship was transferred to the Royal Netherlands Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program in 1951 and served as HNLMS De Zeeuw. The Netherlands returned the ship to the United States in 1967 and Eisner was sold for scrap in February 1968.
USS Hemminger (DE-746) was a Cannon-class destroyer escort in service with the United States Navy from 1944 to 1946 and from 1950 to 1958. In 1959, she was transferred to Thailand, where she serves as HTMS Pin Klao. She is the only Cannon-class destroyer escort still in service.
HMS Wrestler (D35) was a V and W-class destroyer built by the Royal Navy during the First World War and active from 1939 to 1944 during the Second World War. She was the first Royal Navy ship to bear that name, and the only one to do so to date.
HMS Watchman was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I, in the Russian Civil War, and in World War II.
The third HMS Windsor (D42) was a W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in the final months of World War I and in World War II.
Yser, originally named Sénégalais, was a frigate in the Free French Naval Forces during World War II and the French Navy post-war. The ship was originally built as USS Corbesier (DE-106), an American Cannon-class destroyer escort named for Antoine Joseph Corbesier, for more than 40 years he was the beloved swordmaster of the U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen. The name Corbesier (DE-106) was cancelled 24 September 1943 so it could be used for USS Corbesier (DE-438).
Tunisien, was a Cannon-class destroyer escort in service with the Free French Naval Forces and the French Navy from 1944 to 1964. She was scrapped in 1964.
Marocain, was a frigate in the Free French Naval Forces during World War II and the French Navy post-war. The ship was originally built as USS Marocain (DE-109), an American Cannon-class destroyer escort.
Hova was an Escorteur in the Free French Naval Forces during World War II and the French Navy post-war. The ship was originally built as USS Hova (DE-110), an American Cannon-class destroyer escort, and then designated in France as the F704 Escorteur.
HMS Oakley was a Type II Hunt-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was originally to have been named Tickham, however she was renamed after her sister ship Oakley was transferred to Poland and was renamed ORP Kujawiak (L72). She entered service in May 1943, carrying out convoy escort, patrol and anti-shipping attacks for most of the rest of the Second World War. She was adopted by the Civil community of Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire as part of Warship Week in 1942. In 1957, she was sold to the West German Navy, serving as a training ship for the German Naval Gunnery school until scrapped in 1972.
The Z39 was a Type 1936A (Mob) destroyer built for Germany's Kriegsmarine during World War II. She was laid down in August 1940 and completed three years later. Her anti-aircraft armament was increased extensively during the war. Z39 served with the 6th Destroyer Flotilla her entire German career, which she spent escorting transports in the Baltic Sea, laying mines, and bombarding land forces. The destroyer served the navies of a total of three different countries: from 1943 to 1945 with the Kriegsmarine as Z39, from 1945 to 1947 with the US Navy as DD-939, and from 1948 to 1964 with the French Navy as Q-128.
United States
Free France
France
