HMS ''Bickerton'' was a of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

. She served during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

as a convoy escort and

anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare (ASW, or in the older form A/S) is a branch of underwater warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, submarines, or other platforms, to find, track, and deter, damage, or destroy enemy submarines. Such operations ar ...

vessel in the

Battle of the Atlantic The Battle of the Atlantic, the longest continuous military campaign in World War II, ran from 1939 to the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, covering a major part of the naval history of World War II. At its core was the Allies of World War II, ...

and was an effective

U-boat U-boats are Submarine#Military, naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the World War I, First and Second World Wars. The term is an Anglicization#Loanwords, anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the G ...

killer, being credited with the destruction of two U-boats during a service career of just 10 months. ''Bickerton'' was lost in action on 22 August 1944.

Name

Originally this ship was provisionally given the name USS ''Eisele'' (this name was reassigned to ). However the delivery was diverted to the

before launch, and she was renamed for Sir Richard Bickerton commander of at the

First Battle of Ushant The Battle of Ushant (also called the First Battle of Ushant) took place on 27 July 1778, and was fought during the American Revolutionary War between French and British fleets west of Ushant, an island at the mouth of the English Channel off ...

during the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was the armed conflict that comprised the final eight years of the broader American Revolution, in which Am ...

Construction

''Bickerton'' was ordered on 10 January 1942, as DE-75, a long-hulled turbo-diesel ( TE) type

destroyer escort Destroyer escort (DE) was the United States Navy mid-20th-century classification for a warship designed with the endurance necessary to escort mid-ocean convoys of merchant marine ships. Development of the destroyer escort was promoted by th ...

, one of more than 500 such vessels built for ASW to a collaborative British-American design. She was laid down on 3 May 1943, by the

Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard The Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard of Hingham, Massachusetts, was a shipyard in the United States from 1941 until 1945. Located on Weymouth Back River, it was owned by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Company and operated by the nearby Fore River Shipyard ...

Hingham, Massachusetts Hingham ( ) is a town in northern Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Part of the Greater Boston region, it is located on the South Shore (Massachusetts), South Shore of Massachusetts. At the 2020 ...

. She was launched on 24 July and completed 17 October, in the remarkably (but not unusually) short build time of 5 months 14 daysThe similar-sized

River-class frigate The River class was a class of 151 frigates launched between 1941 and 1944 for use as anti-submarine convoy escorts in the North Atlantic. The majority served with the Royal Navy and Royal Canadian Navy (RCN), with some serving in the other A ...

s had a typical build time of over 12 months.

Service career

On commissioning and working up ''Bickerton'' sailed for Britain, where she was modified to meet Royal Navy requirements. In March 1944 she was allocated to

Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...

as senior ship of 5th Escort Group under her new captain, Cdr. D MacIntyre In April 5EG joined ON 233 as support group, but was detached to hunt for a U-boat on weather-reporting duty. On 6 May 1944, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability.) The term "submarine" is also sometimes used historically or infor ...

was found and sunk in the North Atlantic by

depth charge A depth charge is an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) weapon designed to destroy submarine A submarine (often shortened to sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. (It differs from a submersible, which has more limited ...

s from ''Bickerton'', operating alongside two

Fairey Swordfish The Fairey Swordfish is a retired biplane torpedo bomber, designed by the Fairey Aviation Company. Originating in the early 1930s, the Swordfish, nicknamed "Stringbag", was principally operated by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy. It was a ...

( No. 825 Squadron) of the

escort carrier The escort carrier or escort aircraft carrier (U.S. hull classification symbol CVE), also called a "jeep carrier" or "baby flattop" in the United States Navy (USN) or "Woolworth Carrier" by the Royal Navy, was a small and slower type of aircraf ...

and frigates and . Of the crew of ''U-765'', 37 died and 11 survived. A further search for the U-boat sent as ''U-765s relief was unsuccessful. In June ''Bickerton'' and 5EG were deployed in the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

as part of

Operation Neptune Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, the naval component of the Normandy landings. Their task was to guard against interference by U-boats from the Biscay ports. On 15 June the group was in an unsuccessful action against a U-boat, during which the frigate '' Mourne'' was sunk. (The U-boat, '' U-767'', was caught three days later and destroyed by 14 EG.)Blair p.592 Ten days later on 25 June, off Start Point, ''Bickerton'' and 5 EG found and sank . Of the crew of ''U-269'', 13 died and 39 survived.

Fate

in August 1944 ''Bickerton'' and 5EG were escorting the escort carriers ( and ) from the Home Fleet (under Admiral Moore), which covered the convoy JW 59 and launched further attacks (

Operation Goodwood Operation Goodwood was a British offensive during the Second World War, which took place between 18 and 20 July 1944 as part of the larger battle for Caen in Normandy, France. The objective of the operation was a limited attack to the south, ...

) on the German

battleship A battleship is a large, heavily naval armour, armored warship with a main battery consisting of large naval gun, guns, designed to serve as a capital ship. From their advent in the late 1880s, battleships were among the largest and most form ...

in Altenfjord. Before the group was able to launch an attack on ''Tirpitz'', encountered them on her search for the convoy northwest of the North Cape in the

Barents Sea The Barents Sea ( , also ; , ; ) is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, located off the northern coasts of Norway and Russia and divided between Norwegian and Russian territorial waters.World Wildlife Fund, 2008. It was known earlier among Russi ...

. At about 01:00 on 22 August, at position , ''U-354'' badly damaged ''Nabob'' with a pattern-running FAT torpedo spread. The U-boat then tried to sink her at 01:22 with a

GNAT GNAT is a free-software compiler for the Ada programming language which forms part of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). It supports all versions of the language, i.e. Ada 2012, Ada 2005, Ada 95 and Ada 83. Originally its ...

homing torpedo, which struck ''Bickerton''. She was subsequently scuttled by a torpedo from , to focus the recovery effort on ''Nabob''. Two days later ''U-354'' was herself sunk attacking convoy JW 59.

Battle honours

''Bickerton'' earned the following

battle honour A battle honour is an award of a right by a government or sovereign to a military unit to emblazon the name of a battle or Military operation, operation on its flags ("colours"), uniforms or other accessories where ornamentation is possible. In ...

s for service: ''Battle Honours''
at britainsnavy.co.uk; retrieved 22 July 2020 *

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...

1944 * English Channel 1944 *

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

1944 *

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

1944

Successes

During her service ''Bickerton'' was credited with the destruction of two U-boats.

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

HMS ''Bickerton''
at uboat.net

at navalhistory.net
captainclassfrigates.co.uk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bickerton (K466) Buckley-class destroyer escorts Captain-class frigates Ships built in Hingham, Massachusetts World War II shipwrecks in the Arctic Ocean Shipwrecks in the Barents Sea 1943 ships Maritime incidents in August 1944 Ships sunk by German submarines in World War II