USS Hunt (DD-194)/ HMS Broadway

USS Hunt (DD-194) was a Clemson class destroyer that briefly served with the US Neutrality Patrol before being transferred to the Royal Navy as HMS Broadway, where she helped capture U-110.

The Hunt was named after William Henry Hunt, Secretary of the Navy in 1878-1882, at a time when the Navy had been neglected since the end of the Civil War. He played an important role in the creation of the ‘New Navy’, which established the United States as a naval power.

USS Hunt (DD-194),
New York Harbour, c.1920

The Hunt was launched at Newport News on 14 February 1920 and commissioned on 30 September 1920. She was initially based at Newport, Rhode Island, where she took part in torpedo trials. She then moved to Charleston in December 1920, where she was based until May 1922 when she moved to Philadelphia. She was decommissioned at Philadelpia on 11 August 1922.

The Hunt was recommissioned on 13 September 1930 with the US Coast Guard, and took part in the prohibition era anti-smuggling patrols. She was returned to Navy control on 28 May 1934 and decommissioned for a second time.

The Hunt was recommissioned once again after the outbreak of war in Europe. She left Philadelphia on 26 January 1940 to join the neutrality patrol in the Caribbean. On 3 April she left the Panama Canal zone to escort the submarine Searaven to Cape Canaveral. She then visited Cuba for gunnery practice, before reaching Norfolk in April. She was then used for training cruises along the east coast.

The Hunt was chosen to be one of the fifty destroyers that went to Britain under the ‘Destroyers for Bases’ deal. She left Newport on 3 October 1940 and reached Halifax on 5 October. She took on 100 Royal Naval personel for training on 6 October, and was transferred to the Royal navy on 8 October, becoming HMS Broadway.

HMS Broadway

The Broadway reached Belfast on 24 October 1940, where she joined the 11th Escort Group, Western Approaches Command. Her main duty was to escort convoys across the Atlantic.

Her main claim to fame came on 9 May 1941, when along with HMS Bulldog and HMS Aubrietia she forced the German U-boat U-110 to surrender. Her captain at the time was Korvetten-Kapitan Lemp, who had been responsible for the first U-boat success of the war, when he sank the line Athenia on 3 September 1939, causing a great deal of controversy. Lemp was killed in the attack that forced U-110 to surrender, but 4 officers, 28 men and a war correspondent were rescued. A number of invaluable documents that greatly helped the code breaks were taken from U-110, but the submarine itself sank while being towed to safety.

The Broadway continued on her escort duties throughout 1942 and 1943. On 12 May 1943 she supported aircraft from HMS Biter and the frigate HMS Lagan in the destruction of U-89, sunk to the north-east of the Azores.

In September 1943 the Broadway underwent a refit at Belfast to turn her into a target ship for aircraft undergoing training. She performed that role at Rosyth until the end of the war in Europe. In May 1945 she was sent to Northern Norway as part of the Allied liberation force, and at Narvik she was placed in charge of a convoy of surrendered U-boats heading for Trondheim.

The Hunt was selected for scrapping in March 1948.

U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History, Norman Friedmann . The standard history of the development of American destroyers, from the earliest torpedo boat destroyers to the post-war fleet, and covering the massive classes of destroyers built for both World Wars. Gives the reader a good understanding of the debates that surrounded each class of destroyer and led to their individual features.

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