DE-51 Buckley

The US Navy built 156 Buckley class destroyer escorts during World War II; 44 were transferred to Great Britain under the Lend Lease program. These were the heaviest of the six classes of DE built on an emergency basis during the war to fill the convoy escort duty. The class was constructed from June 1942 to March 1945.

Six were lost in action during the war. Several were converted to radar picket ships (DER) and served during the Korean War but the majority were decommissioned following World War II and laid up in reserve.

These escorts were designed to have a higher maximum speed; almost 24 knots with a range of 5,000 nm at cruising speed of 15 knots.

Many of these destroyers would be pressed into service as high speed destroyer transports (APDs).