Berkeley and the Bordeaux communications network

HMS Berkeley was a deliberately riskable escort, important enough to carry communications and enter port but less damaging to lose than a fleet destroyer or cruiser. Ordered in the prewar program that also produced Flower-class corvettes, she became an evacuation ship for the Polish cabinet and President Władysław Raczkiewicz. Offshore, Arethusa and then Galatea provided the wireless coordination needed to manage ships across the lower Gironde. Prewar escort procurement supplied the ships that formed Aerial's improvised command network off Bordeaux.