{"id":2103,"date":"2012-09-04T20:24:06","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T02:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=2103"},"modified":"2012-09-04T20:24:06","modified_gmt":"2012-09-05T02:24:06","slug":"this-week-in-the-war-2-8-september-1940-destroyers-for-bases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=2103","title":{"rendered":"This week in the War, 2&#8211;8 September 1940: destroyers for bases"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?attachment_id=2105\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2105\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2105\" title=\"US Wickes-class destroyers about to be transferred to the Royal Navy [Public domain]\" src=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wdestroyersbases1-234x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"234\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wdestroyersbases1-234x300.jpg 234w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wdestroyersbases1-117x150.jpg 117w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wdestroyersbases1.jpg 469w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 234px) 100vw, 234px\" \/><\/a>On 3 September 1940 (the anniversary of Britain&#8217;s entry into WWII), Britain signed an agreement to receive 50 WWI destroyers from the United States. Some American and British sailors are shown here inspecting depth charges, with destroyers in the background.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Britain was sorely pressed to keep open its Atlantic life-line, although it has been argued that the destroyers also served Britain&#8217;s political aim at of pushing the neutral USA into slowly shedding her neutrality. Roosevelt complied&#8212;but it was a dangerous game for him to play during an election year.<\/p>\n<p>In exchange, the USA leased British naval bases in Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua and British Guiana. Bermuda was not part of the deal, but was added in at about the same time.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?attachment_id=2109\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2109\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-2109\" title=\"US base Kindley Field, Bermuda [Public domain]\" src=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wkindleyfield-150x99.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wkindleyfield-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wkindleyfield-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wkindleyfield.jpg 591w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?attachment_id=2106\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-2106\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-2106\" title=\"Bermuda International Airport (2010), Attribution: Bermuda Dept. of Airport Operations\" src=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wbermuda2-150x100.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wbermuda2-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wbermuda2-300x201.jpg 300w, https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Wbermuda2.jpg 800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>The US built an air base in Bermuda, naming it\u00a0<em>Kindley Field<\/em>\u00a0(left). Postwar, it was handed back and developed into Bermuda&#8217;s present-day International Airport (right).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On 3 September 1940 (the anniversary of Britain&#8217;s entry into WWII), Britain signed an agreement to receive 50 WWI destroyers from the United States. Some American and British sailors are shown here inspecting depth charges, with destroyers in the background. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/?p=2103\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[209,208,210,54],"class_list":["post-2103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-war-ii","tag-bermuda","tag-destroyers-for-bases-deal","tag-kindley-field","tag-roosevelt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2103"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2156,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2103\/revisions\/2156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secondbysecondworldwar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}