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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

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Aylmer (BDE-72)

1943-1945

Matthew Aylmer entered the Royal Navy in 1678 and advanced to the rank of captain in 1679. After serving in the Mediterranean, he joined the revolutionaries who overthrew the Stuart monarch, James II. He took part in the battles of Beachy Head and Barfleur, and went to the Mediterranean as commander in chief in 1698, where he confirmed earlier treaties with Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers.

Retiring from active service in 1699, Aylmer served as a navy commissioner untl 1702. He was reappointed to command the fleet in 1709 but, after failure in an engagement with the French, he was relieved in 1711. When George I succeeded to the throne in 1714, Aylmer was returned to command and received a peerage and the rank of Rear Admiral of the United Kingdom before his death in 1720.

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(BDE-72: displacement 1,300; length 306'; beam 36'9"; draft 10'9"; speed 24 knots; complement 200; armament 3 3-inch, 2 40 millimeter, 8 20 millimeter, 2 depth charge tracks, 4 depth charge projectors, 1 depth charge projector (Hedgehog); class Buckley)

The escort vessel DE-72, was laid down on 12 April 1943 at Hingham, Mass., by the Bethlehem Steel Corp., and named Harmon on 18 May 1943. The ship was allocated to the United Kingdom under Lend Lease on 10 June 1943; and the name Harmon was reassigned to another escort vessel DE-678 on 23 June. Launched on 10 July 1943, the ship was accepted by the Royal Navy on 30 September and commissioned as Aylmer (K.463) the same day.

During World War II, Aylmer garnered "battle honors" off Normandy during the invasion of Europe in the summer of 1944 and in the North Atlantic in 1944 and the first months of 1945. She figured in the destruction of two U-boats during the course of hostilities in the Atlantic: U-765 on 6 May 1944, in company with sister ships Bickerton (K.466) and Bligh (K.467) and planes from the escort carrier Vindex No. 825 Squadron; and U-117S2 on 12 June 1944, in conjunction with the efforts of sister ships Colder (K.349) and Bentinck (K.314) and the Evarts-class destroyer escort Manners (K.568).

The ship was decommissioned by the Royal Navy at the New York Navy Yard, Brooklyn, N.Y., on 5 November 1945 and simultaneously accepted by the U.S. Navy. Stricken from the Naval Register on 19 December 1945, she was sold to Mr. John J. Witto of Staten Island, N.Y., on 9 June 1947, and scrapped by February 1948.

Robert J. Cressman

Updated 13 December 2021

Published: Mon Dec 13 11:13:08 EST 2021