USS Hunt (DD-194) - As HMS Broadway

As HMS Broadway

Hunt was one of the 50 overage ships exchanged with the British in the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. She got underway from Newport 3 October 1940, and reached Halifax, Nova Scotia on 5 October. The following day she embarked 100 British officers and sailors for training. On 8 October she decommissioned from the U.S. Navy and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Broadway (H90).

Broadway arrived at Belfast on 24 October 1940, where she joined the 11th Escort Group, Western Approaches Command, with whom she engaged in escorting numerous convoys. On 9 May, while escorting convoy OB 318, she was involved, with the destroyer Bulldog and the corvette Aubrietia, in the capture of German submarine U-110 between Iceland and Greenland. On the previous night, the U-boat had crept in to attack OB 318, but was prevented from surfacing by the strong destroyer escort. The submarine continued to shadow the Allied ships until early in the afternoon watch when she launched three torpedoes from periscope depth. Broadway and her fellow escorts promptly counterattacked and forced her to surface where she surrendered. Unfortunately the prize sank while in tow to port, but not before her captors had recovered documents of great value and importance to the Allies' cause - namely an intact Naval Enigma machine. U-110 was commanded by Korvettenkapitän Fritz-Julius Lemp who had made the first kill of the war by sinking the liner SS Athenia on 3 September 1939, the day the United Kingdom declared war. Lemp was lost with 14 members of his crew when U-110 sank, but a war correspondent, 4 officers and 28 men were rescued.

Broadway was modified for trade convoy escort service by removal of three of the original 4"/50 caliber guns and three of the triple torpedo tube mounts to reduce topside weight for additional depth charge stowage and installation of hedgehog. Broadway was assigned to Escort Group C-2 of the Mid-Ocean Escort Force for convoys ON-119, SC-97, ON-139, SC-108, ON-149, SC-113, ON-179 and HX-237 during the winter of 1942-43 On 12 May 1943 she joined the frigate Lagan and aircraft from escort carrier Biter in destroying another German submarine, U-89, which was sunk northeast of the Azores.

After refitting at Belfast in September 1943, Broadway became a target ship for aircraft and served as such at Rosyth in Scotland until the war ended in Europe. In May 1945 she left Rosyth for Northern Norway with occupation forces. At Narvik, Norway, she took charge of a convoy of German submarines which was sailing for Trondheim. In the reduction of the British Navy after the war, Hunt was scrapped.