USS Wickes (DD-75) - Transfer To Britain

Transfer To Britain

Prime Minister Winston Churchill appealed to President Roosevelt for assistance; and, during the summer of 1940, an agreement was worked out between the United States and Great Britain. In return for 50 "overage" American destroyers transferred to the Royal Navy, the United States received leases, for a duration of 99 years, on strategic base sites stretching from Newfoundland to British Guiana.

Accordingly, 50 ships were picked for transfer— Wickes among them. After her last Caribbean tour, the destroyer returned to Key West on 24 July. She shifted to Galveston, Texas, on 27 July for an overhaul at Todd's Drydock Company and remained there through August.

Wickes departed Galveston in company with Evans (DD-78), on 22 September, touched briefly at Key West, and arrived at the Norfolk Navy Yard, Portsmouth, Virginia, on the 26th. On 9 October, Wickes departed Hampton Roads with DesDiv 64 and stopped at the Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island, soon thereafter. The ships transited the Cape Cod Canal, en route to Provincetown, Massachusetts, and after stopping there briefly, pushed on for Halifax Nova Scotia, where they arrived on 16 October.

As part of the fifth group of destroyers transferred to the British and Canadians, Wickes was visited by Prime Minister Mackenzie King of Canada and Rear Admiral Ferdinand L. Reichmuth, USN, the Commander, Destroyers, Atlantic Fleet, on 19 October, during the indoctrination period for the prospective British crew. On 23 October 1940, Wickes was turned over to the Royal Navy. Her name was struck from the Navy list on 8 January 1941.