USS Hunt (DD-194)

Last updated

USS Hunt (DD-194) at New York City, circa in 1920 (NH 76377).jpg
USS Hunt (DD-194) in 1920
History
US flag 48 stars.svgUnited States
Namesake William H. Hunt
Builder Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company
Laid down20 August 1918
Launched14 February 1920
Commissioned30 September 1920
Decommissioned11 August 1922
Fate
  • Transferred to USCG,
  • 13 September 1930
Ensign of the United States Coast Guard (1915-1953).pngUnited States
NameUSCGD Hunt (CG-18)
Acquired13 September 1930
Commissioned8 October 1930
Decommissioned28 May 1934
Fate
  • Returned to USN,
  • 28 May 1934
US flag 48 stars.svgUnited States
Acquired28 May 1934
CommissionedDecember 1939
Decommissioned8 October 1940
Stricken8 January 1941
Fate
  • Transferred to UK,
  • 8 October 1940
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
NameHMS Broadway (H90)
Acquired8 October 1940
Commissioned8 October 1940
FateScrapped in 1947
General characteristics
Class and type Clemson-class destroyer
Displacement1,215 tons
Length314 ft 4 in (95.8 m)
Beam31 ft 9 in (9.7 m)
Draft9 ft 4 in (2.8 m)
Propulsion
  • 26,500 shp (20 MW);
  • geared turbines,
  • 2 screws
Speed35 knots (65 km/h)
Range
  • 4,900  nmi (9,100 km)
  •   @ 15  kt
Complement101 officers and enlisted
Armament

USS Hunt (DD-194) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy following World War I. She also served in the United States Coast Guard, as USCGD Hunt (CG-18). She was later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Broadway (H90).

Contents

As USS Hunt/USCGD Hunt

The first Navy ship named after Secretary of the Navy William H. Hunt (1823–1884), Hunt was launched by the Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company, Newport News, Virginia, 14 February 1920; sponsored by Miss Virginia Livingston Hunt; and commissioned 30 September 1920.

After shakedown, Hunt participated in training and readiness exercises with the Atlantic Fleet and conducted torpedo trials on the range out of Newport, Rhode Island. She shifted her base of operations to Charleston, South Carolina, 3 December 1920. Sailing from Charleston Harbor 29 May 1922, she entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard 6 June and decommissioned there 11 August 1922.

From 13 September 1930 to 28 May 1934 the U.S. Coast Guard had custody of the ship. Hunt served as part of the Rum Patrol.

After being recommissioned at Philadelphia, Hunt departed on 26 January 1940 for Neutrality patrol in the Caribbean Sea. She left Panama Canal 3 April to escort submarine Searaven to Cape Canaveral and then engaged in gunnery practice in Cuban waters en route to Norfolk, Virginia arriving 17 April 1940. The next few months were devoted to maneuvers in Chesapeake Bay and training cruises down the eastern seaboard.

As HMS Broadway

Hunt was one of the 50 overage ships exchanged with the British in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. She got under way from Newport 3 October 1940, and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on 5 October. The following day she embarked 100 British officers and sailors for training. On 8 October she decommissioned from the U.S. Navy and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Broadway (H90).

USS Hunt as HMS Broadway (H90). The Battle of the Atlantic 1939-1945 A8291.jpg
USS Hunt as HMS Broadway (H90).

Broadway arrived at Belfast on 24 October 1940, where she joined the 11th Escort Group, Western Approaches Command, with whom she engaged in escorting numerous convoys. On 9 May, while escorting convoy OB 318, she was involved, with the destroyer Bulldog and the corvette Aubrietia, in the capture of German submarine U-110 between Iceland and Greenland. On the previous night, the U-boat had crept in to attack OB 318, but was prevented from surfacing by the strong destroyer escort. The submarine continued to shadow the Allied ships until early in the afternoon watch when she launched three torpedoes from periscope depth. Broadway and her fellow escorts promptly counterattacked and forced her to surface where she surrendered. Unfortunately the prize sank while in tow to port, but not before her captors had recovered documents of great value and importance to the Allies' cause – including an intact Naval Enigma machine. U-110 was commanded by Korvettenkapitän Fritz-Julius Lemp who had made the first kill of the war by sinking the liner SS Athenia on 3 September 1939, the day the United Kingdom declared war. Lemp was lost with 14 members of his crew when U-110 sank, but a war correspondent, 4 officers and 28 men were rescued.

Broadway was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4"/50 caliber guns and three of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of hedgehog. [1] Broadway was assigned to Escort Group C-2 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoys ON 119, SC 97, ON 139, SC 108, ON 149, SC 113, ON 179 and HX 237 during the winter of 1942–43 [2] While assigned to HX 237, on 12 May 1943 she joined the frigate Lagan and aircraft from escort carrier Biter in destroying another German submarine, U-89, which was sunk northeast of the Azores.

After refitting at Belfast in September 1943, Broadway became a target ship for aircraft and served as such at Rosyth in Scotland until the war ended in Europe. In May 1945 she left Rosyth for northern Norway with occupation forces. At Narvik, Norway, she took charge of a convoy of German submarines which was sailing for Trondheim. In the reduction of the British Navy after the war, Hunt was scrapped.

Notes

  1. Lenton&Colledge (1968) pp.92–94
  2. Milner (1985) pp.287–8

Related Research Articles

USS <i>Ringgold</i> (DD-89) Wickes-class destroyer

USS Ringgold (DD-89) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I and the interwar period. During World War II, the vessel was transferred to the Royal Navy as a Town-class destroyer named HMS Newark, being scrapped after the end of the war in 1947.

USS <i>Twiggs</i> (DD-127) Wickes-class destroyer

The first USS Twiggs (DD–127) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was named for Major Levi Twiggs. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy, as HMS Leamington and to the Soviet Navy as Zhguchy, before returning to Britain to star in the film The Gift Horse, which depicts the St. Nazaire Raid.

USS <i>Crowninshield</i> Wickes-class destroyer

USS Crowninshield (DD–134) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy between World War I and World War II. She was named for Benjamin Williams Crowninshield. In World War II she was transferred to the Royal Navy where she was named HMS Chelsea, and subsequently to the Soviet Navy where she was named Derzky.

USS <i>Cowell</i> (DD-167) Wickes-class destroyer

The first USS Cowell (DD–167) was a Wickes-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War I. She was transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Brighton, and later to the Soviet Navy as Zharky.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of the Battle of the Atlantic</span> Part of World War II

This is a timeline for the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) in World War II.

USS <i>Welborn C. Wood</i> Clemson-class destroyer

USS Welborn C. Wood (DD-195) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy during World War II. She served with the United States Coast Guard as USCGD Wood. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Chesterfield.

USS <i>Branch</i> (DD-197) Clemson-class destroyer

USS Branch (DD-197) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy that entered service in 1920. After a short active life, Branch was placed in reserve in 1922. The ship was activated again for World War II before being transferred to the Royal Navy in 1940. Renamed HMS Beverley, the destroyer served in the Battle of the Atlantic as a convoy escort and was torpedoed and sunk on 11 April 1943.

USS <i>Herndon</i> (DD-198) Clemson-class destroyer

USS Herndon (DD-198) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy. Herndon served in the United States Coast Guard as CG-17. She was later transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Churchill and still later to the Soviet Navy as Deyatelny.

USS <i>Aulick</i> (DD-258) Clemson-class destroyer

The second USS Aulick (DD-258) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy and transferred to the Royal Navy where she served as HMS Burnham (H82) during World War II.

USS <i>Laub</i> (DD-263) Clemson-class destroyer

The first USS Laub (DD-263) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy and transferred to the Royal Navy where she served as HMS Burwell (H94) during World War II. She was named for Henry Laub.

USS <i>Swasey</i> (DD-273) Clemson-class destroyer

The first USS Swasey (DD-273) was a Clemson-class destroyer in the United States Navy and transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Rockingham (G58).

HMS <i>Orwell</i> (G98) O-class destroyer converted to Type 16 frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Orwell was an O-class destroyer of the Royal Navy that entered service in 1942 and was broken up in 1965.

HMS <i>Escapade</i> British E-class destroyer

HMS Escapade was an E-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy in the early 1930s. Although assigned to the Home Fleet upon completion in 1934, the ship was attached to the Mediterranean Fleet in 1935–1936 during the Abyssinia Crisis. During the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939 she spent considerable time in Spanish waters, enforcing the arms blockade imposed by Britain and France on both sides of the conflict. Escapade was assigned to convoy escort and anti-submarine patrol duties in the Western Approaches when World War II began in September 1939, but transferred back to the Home Fleet at the end of the year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mid-ocean escort force</span>

Mid-Ocean Escort Force (MOEF) referred to the organisation of anti-submarine escorts for World War II trade convoys between Canada and Newfoundland, and the British Isles. The allocation of United States, British and Canadian escorts to these convoys reflected preferences of the United States upon United States' declaration of war and the organisation persisted through the winter of 1942–43 despite withdrawal of United States ships from the escort groups. By the summer of 1943, United States Atlantic escorts were focused on the faster CU convoys and the UG convoys between Chesapeake Bay and the Mediterranean Sea; and only British and Canadian escorts remained on the HX, SC and ON convoys.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Convoy OB 318</span> Convoy during naval battles of the Second World War

OB 318 was a North Atlantic convoy which ran during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. During Operation Primrose Royal Navy convoy escorts HMS Bulldog, Broadway and Aubrietia captured U-110 with an intact Enigma machine and a wealth of signals intelligence, which led to the Allied breakthrough into cracking the German naval Enigma code.

HMS <i>Witherington</i> (D76) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Witherington was an Admiralty modified W-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. She was one of four destroyers ordered in April 1918 from James Samuel White & Co Ltd. under the 14th Order for Destroyers of the Emergency War Program of 1917–18. She was the first Royal Navy ship to carry this name.

HMS <i>Vanessa</i> (D29) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Vanessa (D29) was a V-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that was in service during World War I and World War II.

HMS <i>Volunteer</i> (D71) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

The fourth HMS Volunteer (D71), later I71, was a Modified W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service in World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BX convoys</span> Convoys during naval battles of the Second World War

The BX convoys were a World War II series of convoys across the Gulf of Maine from Boston to HalifaX. These convoys were escorted by the Western Local Escort Force (WLEF) of the Royal Canadian Navy to protect coastal shipping in transit between North American loading ports and trans-Atlantic convoy assembly points in Nova Scotia.

HMS <i>Scimitar</i> (H21)

HMS Scimitar was an S-class destroyer which served with the Royal Navy and the first ship in the Royal Navy named after the Scimitar, an Arabian backsword or sabre with a curved blade. She served in both World Wars and following a National Savings campaign in 1942 she was adopted by the civil community of Pershore, Worcestershire.

References