Destroyers for Bases Agreement
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The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty obsolete destroyers from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions. The destroyers became the Town class.
Background
For the United Kingdom, the Second World War started in September 1939. After the brief non-events of the Phony War, the Battle of France saw France and the Low Countries quickly overrun by the Nazi German Blitzkrieg. This left the United Kingdom and her Empire standing alone against Hitler.
The United States government was sympathetic to the British cause, however at this time the American public overwhelmingly supported isolationism and the Neutrality Act, which banned the shipment of arms from the U.S. to any combatant nation. Additionally, Franklin D. Roosevelt was further constrained by upcoming elections where his opponents portrayed him as being pro-war.
After Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of British forces from France, the Royal Navy was in immediate need of ships, especially as they were now facing the Second Battle of the Atlantic in which German U-boats threatened Britain's supplies of food and other resources.
The deal
The British Ambassador, the Marquess of Lothian, sent a request to the United States Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, who returned a positive response on September 2.
In exchange for "naval and military equipment and material" the US was granted land for the establishment of naval or air bases, on ninety-nine-year rent-free leases, on:
- Avalon Peninsula
- South and eastern coasts of Newfoundland
- Great Bay of Bermuda
- Eastern side of the Bahamas
- Southern coast of Jamaica
- Western coast of St. Lucia,
- West coast of Trinidad
- Gulf of Paria,
- Antigua — Antigua Air Station
- British Guiana within fifty miles of Georgetown.
The US were allowed all the rights, power, and authority within the bases leased.
The US accepted the "generous action… to enhance the national security of the United States" and immediately transferred fifty United States Navy destroyers "generally referred to as the twelve hundred-ton type" (also known in references as "flush-deck" destroyers, or "four-pipers" after their four funnels) Forty-three went to the Royal Navy and seven to the Royal Canadian Navy. Ships were transferred on from the Royal Navy to the Royal Netherlands Navy, the Royal Norwegian Navy and the Soviet Navy.
In the Commonwealth navies the ships were named after towns, and were therefore known as the Town class, although they had originally belonged to three ship classes (the Caldwell, Clemson, and Wickes classes).
The move was seen as the selling of part of the Empire, and some in the United States were particularly worried about overseas imperialism.