200203 by Navy News

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NAVY NEWS, MARCH 2002

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• Captain-class frigate HMS Calder, seen here in mid-Atlantic in 1943 in a photo probably taken by a US Coast Guard aircraft.

The forgotten class

A • A young Harold Fine, of HMS Calder.

N OFT-overlooked class of warships from World War II will be enjoying a spot in the limelight when the Captain-Class Frigate Association celebrates a diamond jubilee next month. The get-together, in Warwick, marks 60 years since the first of the class was laid down, and the introduction to the fray of an escort type which had a crucial impact on the Battle of the Atlantic.

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Numbers were gradually cut back until the class was completed by 78 hulls, of two types. At 46 the more numerous were the longer Buckleys, powered by turbo-electric engines, while 32 Evarts had dicscl-electric power. Buckleys had a ship's company of 200, 25 more than the Evarts. The Captain-class was designed in the US as destroyer escorts (DEs) and ordered in 1940, before the States entered the war. RN ships were ordered without torpedo tubes, so by definition they were frigates, while their identical American sisters were destroyers. The Admiralty provided an outline specification for key criteria such as length and speed, giving the ships the capability of outrunning a Uboat on the surface and with the range and endurance to remain at sea for several weeks, often in the harshest of conditions, while the Americans did the detailed design work. Their main armaments were three 3in guns and a Hedgehog anti-submarine bomb-throwing installation, backed up by a variety of Oerlikons and Bofors, 40mm and 20mm guns and 2pdr pompoms. The first of class was Bayntun, which arrived in the UK in April, 1943, and by the following summer the entire RN complement had been delivered, with British crews crossing the Atlantic to join their ship and train in it before joining the war effort. "About 16,000 men served in them, and we lost about 700 men," said Harold Fine, one of the driving forces behind the CaptainClass Frigate Association and a radar operator in HMS Calder for almost three years. "We know we sank at least 33 Uboats and 20 or so E-boats - so we paid our way." The ships were not perfect, though: "They would roll on a wet teacloth - they had a murderous roll, something like 42 degrees in six seconds was recorded." But it gave Harold and his colleagues a chance to get away from the war for a few weeks, to pick up the ship in the United States and spend a couple of weeks training around Bermuda before being plunged into the life-or-death struggle with U-boats in the

Atlantic. "Back in the UK certain modifications were made," recalled Harold. "The water fountains were taken out, for example, and so were the washing machines - they were too modern. All sorts of Americanised things were removed." Between them the Captains destroyed possibly as many as 38 German submarines, three midget submarines and more than 30 Eboats - a score which surpassed any other class. One of eight of the frigates converted for use as a Coastal Forces Control Frigate, HMS Torrington, destroyed one of the midget submarines on Christmas Day in 1944, just as the ship was going to anchor for Christmas lunch. But there was a price to pay, with 17 lost through enemy action - one of the highest loss ratios of any class. With the war won, surviving ships were returned to the United States with haste under the terms of the Lend-Lease Agreement there were those in the Service who strongly believed that the comfortable ships, with good accommodation, large bathrooms and showers, and advanced propulsion systems, did not show comparable British-built ships in a good light.

he get-together in Warwick, at the Hilton Hotel, will include a display of model ships in the hotel's swimming pool, one built by a model-maker in honour of his brother, who died in HMS Bickerton. There is a roll of honour to the 700 sailors who died in the class, and a mobile museum which gets its third airing. "When the reunions started three years ago, people brought pictures, and we persuaded the hotel to let us have a room for a temporary museum," said Mr Fine. This year's reunion, from Friday April 5 to Sunday April 7, promises the best display yet, featuring a U-boat pennant, the battle ensign from HMS Calder's first U-boat

Captains table Bayntun (K310), Bazely (K311), Barry (K312), Blackwood (K313) torpedoed June 15, 1944, Surges (K347), Drury (K316), Cape/ (K470) Torpedoed December 26, 1944, Cooke (K471), Dacres (K472), Domett (K473), Foley (K474), Garlies (K271), Gould (K476) Torpedoed March 1, 1944, Grindall (K477), Gardiner (K478), Goodall (K479) Torpedoed April 19, 1945, Goodson (K480) Torpedoed June 26, 1944, Gore (K481), Keats (K482), Kempthorne (K483), Kingsmill (K484), Lawford (K514) Bombed June 8, 1944, Louis (K515), Lawson (K516), Pasley (K564), Loring (K565), Hoste (K566), Moorsom (K567), Manners (K563) Torpedoed January 26, 1945, Mounsey (K569), Inglis (K570), Inman (K571) Buckleys: Bentinck (K314), Byard (K315), Calder (K349), Duckworth (K351), Duff (K352) Mined November 30, 1944, Essington (K353), kill, and video of ships under construction. Around 400 people from as far afield as California are expected to attend the reunion dinner. 40 of the guests will be from the American version of the Association, and they will be touring other sites of military significance across the country on a package organised by the hotel chain. The Navy veterans have booked 178 of the 181 rooms at the hotel, and have spilled over into the nearby Holiday Inn. Harold Fine said that more than 520 British Captain-class veterans have been located to date, and

> Captain-class frigate HMS Duckworth.

Affleck (K462) Torpedoed December 27, 1944, Aylmer (K463), Balfour (K464), Bentley (K465), Bickerton (K466) Torpedoed August 22, 1944, Bligh (K467), Braithwaite (K468), Bullen (K460) Torpedoed December 16, 1944, Byron (K508), Conn (K501), (K509), Cotton Cranstoun (K511), Cubitt (K512), Curzon (K513), Dato'ns (K550) Mined January 16, 1945, Deane(K551), Ekins (K552) Mined April 16, 1945, Fitzroy (K553), Redmill (K554) Torpedoed April 27, 1945, Retalick (K555), Halsted (K556) Torpedoed June 10, 1944, Riou (K557), Rutherford (K558), Cosby (K559), Rowley (K560), Rupert (K561), Stockham (K562), Seymour (K563), Spragge (K572), Stayner (K573), Thornborough (K574), Trollope (K575) Torpedoed July 6, 1944, Tyler (K576), Torrington (K577), Narborough (K578), Waldegrave (K579), Whitaker (580) Torpedoed November 1, 1944, Holmes (K581), Hargood (K582), Hotham (K583) that he had been in touch with at least one representative of every single ship of the 78 in the class. As a result, 66 of them will be represented at the Diamond Jubilee dinner in Warwick. For more information on the class, Don Collingwood's book is recommended reading by the Association. Details of the Association can be obtained from Harold Fine on 020 8455 9400 or Dave Lingard on 01926 497514. A full article on Captain-class frigates, with material from Mr Fine and Charlie Chivers, will be posted on the Navy News website in the coming weeks.

Picture: Maritime Photo Library.