There are two River Classes, and an Issue of
other nomenclature as well.
The term Destroyer Escort was adopted for
there emergency escort ship designs. the
british used the terms corvette and later
frigate for there emergency expansion escorts
but used the term Destroyer escort for a
fleet destroyer stepped down in duties due
to age and obselesence.but not retired which
were refitted usually with reduced surface
armament though not always and usually
with an increased asw loadout. they were short
legged but very fast compared to the early hodge
podge escorts and the flower class corvettes.
later on as a result of the success of the flower
class a military conversion of a commercial design
the admiralty asked William Reed designer of the
Flower Class to go the other way and make a
commercial construction out of a military design
in an effort to remedy the more obvious shortcomings
of the Flower Class. the result was the
River Class Frigate. a different type of ship altogether
than the DE's,
The Rivers Were produced to the tune of 176 commisioned
hulls worldwide, they also spawned the later Loch and Bay
class Frigates which in there turn were the penultimate versions
of the commercial construction approach.
River Frigates were highly succesful if imperfect escorts.
they were however a worthy remedy and filled out the main
role of the escorts through the second half of the war.
in numbers they were the second most numerous commonwealth
combatant.
Excellent seaboats they were slower than the DE's but enjoyed
a much longer range and were although a little weak for surface
and AA armament much more up to date on leading edge asw
suites.
Regards.
M
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