HMS Affleck

History
Laid down	5 April 1943
Launched	30 June 1943
Commissioned	29 September 1943
Decommissioned	Returned to US Navy in August 1945
Fate	Sold to the Lisbon-based Transcontinental Victory Commercial Corporation Ltd on 24 January 1947, refurbished and entered service in Portuguese Merchant Navy as Nostra De La Luz in 1954 serving into the 1970's.
General characteristics
Displacement	1,800 tons 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 (10,190 km) at 15 knots (28 km/h)
Complement	Typically between 170 & 180

HMS Affleck was a Captain class frigate which served during World War II. The ship was named after Sir Edmund Affleck, commander of HMS Bedford at the Moonlight Battle in 1780 during the American Revolutionary War.

Originally destined for the US Navy as a Buckley-class destroyer escort, HMS Affleck was provisionally given the name USS Oswald (later this name was reassigned to DE-767). However, the delivery was diverted to the Royal Navy before the launch.

Commanding Officers were Lt E I Pilditch on commissioning, then Cdr C Gwinner RN (Senior Officer 1st Escort Group).

Actions

HMS Affleck served exclusively with the 1st Escort Group taking part in operations in the North Atlantic, off Normandy, and in the English Channel.

On 19 February 1944, together with HMS Bentley, HMS Affleck picked up 54 survivors from the Panamanian merchant Colin which had been torpedoed and sunk the previous day in the North Atlantic in position 54°16′N 31°58′W by the Kriegsmarine submarine U-859.

On 26 February 1944 in the North Atlantic at position 49°45′N 26°20′W HMS Affleck, together with HMS Gore and HMS Gould, sank the submarine U-91 by the use of depth charges and then by use of main guns. When the damaged uboat surfaced and tried to ram HMS Affleck, this action resulted in 36 dead and 16 survivors from U-91's crew.

On 1 March 1944 in the Northern Atlantic north of the Azores at position 45°46′N 23°16′W HMS Affleck together with HMS Gore, HMS Gould and HMS Garlies sank the submarine U-358 by the use of depth charges, resulting in 50 dead and 1 survivor from U-358's crew.

On 16 March 1944 in the Straits of Gibraltar at position 35°55′N 05°41′W HMS Affleck together with the destroyer HMS Vanoc and three US Catalina aircraft (VP 63) sank the submarine U-392 by the use of a hedgehog attack, resulting in 52 dead (all hands) from U-392's crew.

On 25 June 1944 HMS Affleck with HMS Balfour attacked a submarine believed to be U-1191 by the use of depth charges, this resulted in the sinking of the submarine with the loss of all hands. This action took place 25 miles (40 km) south of Start Point. The Kriegsmarine had U-1191 listed as missing (no radio contact) since 12 June 1944.

On 26 December 1944 at 14:14 hours off the French coast near Cherbourg U-486 fired three acoustic torpedoes at the 1st Escort Group hitting HMS Affleck and HMS Capel. This resulted in the sinking of HMS Capel. HMS Affleck was towed to port, where the ship was written off as a Constructive Total Loss.

General information

• Pennant (UK): K 462
• Pennant (US): DE 71
• Built by: Bethlehem-Hingham Shipyard Inc. (Hingham, Massachusetts, U.S.A.)

External links

• Uboat.net page for HMS Affleck
• Uboat.net page for U-859
• Uboat.net page for U-91
• Uboat.net page for U-358
• Uboat.net page for U-392
• Uboat.net page for U-1191
• Uboat.net page for U-486
• captainclassfrigates.co.uk

References

• The Captain Class Frigates in the Second World War by Donald Collingwood. published by Leo Cooper (1998), ISBN 085052 615 9.
• The Buckley-Class Destroyer Escorts by Bruce Hampton Franklin, published by Chatham Publishing (1999), ISBN 086176118X.
• German U-Boat Losses During World War II by Axel Niestle, published by United States Naval Inst (1998), ISBN 1557506418.

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