Three modest sloops built from 1934 to 1936 influenced several of the Royal Navy's wartime escort families. Their requirements fed into the Flower and Castle corvettes, while their design led toward the Hunt escort destroyers, Egrets, Black Swans, and modified Black Swans. The Bittern class therefore provides a starting point for Britain's specialized anti-submarine escorts. HMS Enchantress was laid down on 9 March 1934 and commissioned on 4 April 1935, showing how quickly a settled requirement could become an operational vessel before the war.
Chapter · 1:36-3:08
The small sloops behind Britain's later ASW escorts
The Bittern class provided the design foundation for the Flower and Castle corvettes, Hunt escort destroyers, Egrets, and Black Swans that carried British anti-submarine warfare through the Second World War.