HMS Byron

HMS Byron was a US-built Captain class frigate of the Royal Navy during World War II. Named after Vice Admiral The Honourable John Byron whose frequent encounters with bad weather in ensuing years won him the sobriquet, "Foul Weather Jack". Originally laid down as DE-79, a turbo-electric (TE) type Buckley-class destroyer escort, she was diverted to the Royal Navy and named HMS Byron before the launch.

HMS Byron, background, escorts surrendering German submarine U-1009 into Loch Eriboll, Scotland, May 1945
History
United Kingdom
Builder	Bethlehem Hingham Shipyard
Laid down	24 May 1943
Launched	14 August 1943
Commissioned	30 October 1943
Decommissioned	Returned to US Navy on 24 November 1945
Fate	Struck from the Navy list and sold for scrap on 25 October 1947
General characteristics
Displacement	1,800 long tons (1,829 t) fully loaded
Length	306 ft (93 m) overall
Beam	36.5 ft (11.1 m)
Draught	11 ft (3.4 m) fully loaded
Speed	24 knots (44 km/h)
Endurance	5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement	Typically between 170 & 186

Actions

During World War II, HMS Byron earned battle honours for service in the English Channel, the Arctic, and the Atlantic in 1944 and in the North Sea in 1944 and 1945. In the course of these operations, she participated in the destruction of two German U-boats: U-722 on 27 March 1945 off the Hebrides, in position 57°09′N 06°55′W, by depth charges in company with HMS Fitzroy and HMS Redmill; and, teaming with HMS Fitzroy, U-1001 on 8 April 1945 south-west of Land's End, in position 49°19′N 10°23′W, by depth charges.

General information

• Pennant (UK): K 508
• Hull number (US): DE 79
• Built by: Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard Inc. (Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

References

• The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War by Donald Collingwood. published by Leo Cooper (1998), ISBN 0-85052-615-9.
• The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts by Bruce Hampton Franklin, published by Chatham Publishing (1999), ISBN 1-86176-118-X.
• Niestle, Axel (1998). German U-Boat Losses During World War II. United States Naval Institute. ISBN 1-55750-641-8.

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.

External links

• Uboat.net page for HMS Byron
• Uboat.net page for U-722
• Uboat.net page for U-1001
• captainclassfrigates.co.uk