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.
Aconit was one of the nine Flower-class corvettes lent by the Royal Navy to the Free French Naval Forces. During World War II, she escorted 116 convoys, spending 728 days at sea. She was awarded the Croix de la Libération and the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945, and was cited by the British Admiralty. Following the war she was used as whaling ship for three different companies from 1947 to 1964.
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.
The Commandant Rivière class was a class of frigates built for the French Navy in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Labeled "aviso-escorteur", they were designed to perform the role of overseas patrol in peacetime and anti-submarine escort in wartime. This vessel class is named after the French Navy officer Henri Rivière (1827–1883).
The T 47 class or Surcouf class were the first destroyers built for the French Navy after the Second World War. Twelve ships were built between 1955 and 1957. The ships were modernised in the 1960s and decommissioned in the 1980s, when they were replaced by the Cassard and Georges Leygues-class frigates. The class was authorised in 1949 and were designed as aircraft carrier escort vessels. Three were modified to become flagships, four became anti-air guided missile destroyers and five became anti-submarine destroyers. One member of the class survives, Maillé-Brézé as a museum ship at Nantes.
The T 53 class were the second group of destroyers built for the French Navy after World War II. These ships were a modified version of the T 47-class destroyers. The main difference with the preceding ships was the provision of improved air warning and tracking radars as well as an anti-submarine mortar. The ships were built between 1957 and 1958 and were decommissioned in the late 1970s or early 1980s. A single modified ship La Galissonnière was built as a trials ship for a new generation of French weapons. This ship was designated as the T 56 class.
The Torpedoboot Ausland were small destroyers or large torpedo boats captured by Nazi Germany and incorporated into the Kriegsmarine. They were assigned a number beginning with TA.
La Combattante was a destroyer of the Free French Naval Forces (FNFL). A British-built Hunt-class destroyer, she was offered to the Free French in 1942.
HMS Halsted (K556), ex-Russell, was a Captain-class frigate of the Buckley class of destroyer escort, originally intended for the United States Navy. Before she was finished in 1943, she was transferred to the Royal Navy under the terms of Lend-Lease, and saw service from 1943 to 1944 during World War II.
HMS Trollope (K575) was a British Captain class frigate of the Royal Navy in commission during World War II. Originally constructed as a United States Navy Buckley class destroyer escort, she served in the Royal Navy from January to July 1944, when she was lost.
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.
The French term Escorteur appeared during the Second World War to designate a warship, of a medium or light displacement, whose mission was to protect ocean convoys and naval squadrons from attacks by submarines. This role was in general handled by a destroyer escort such as the Buckley and Cannon classes built in the United States, or a Hunt-class destroyer built by the United Kingdom, or even a River class built by the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. The Imperial Japanese Navy used the designation kaibokan for this type of ship.
The Aldebaran class was a class of three frigates/corvettes/destroyer escorts operated by the Italian Navy. They entered service in 1951, with the last one being decommissioned in 1976.
