launched a devastatingly successful blitzkrieg. In addition, German U-boats terrorized transatlantic convoys and took heavy tolls of merchantmen and escorts alike. By summer, the United Kingdom was the last country in Europe still at war with Hitler, with only the English Channel between her and the Germans. The Royal Navy's destroyer forces had suffered losses in the Atlantic, as well as in the Norwegian debacle and the evacuation of Dunkirk. At this point, the newly installed prime minister, Winston Churchill, appealed to President Franklin D. Roosevelt for help. Accordingly, on 23 July 1940, the two leaders reached the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, whereby the United States would transfer 50 overaged flush-decked destroyers to the British in return for 99-year leases on sites for strategic bases in the Western Hemisphere. As one of the 50 ships, Tillman was recommissioned at Philadelphia on 24 August 1940. About three months later, she moved up the coast to Halifax, Nova Scotia, the transfer point for the "50 ships that saved the world." On 21 November 1940, she arrived at that port with the remainder of her division, DesDiv 72, the last group of ships to be turned over to the Royal and Royal Canadian Navies. Royal Navy Decommissioned on 26 November 1940, Tillmans name was struck from the US Navy list on 8 January 1941. Commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Wells (I 95) on 5 December 1940, the destroyer suffered damage on the 9th in a collision with sister ship . She was thus unable to sail for the British Isles until 4 February 1941. Getting underway on that date in company with , Wells encountered a heavy gale in which she lost her topmast. Newark soon suffered engine failure and had to be towed back to Halifax. Wells eventually arrived in the United Kingdom and was soon assigned to the 17th Destroyer Division, which provided escorts for the 1st Minelaying Squadron. During this time, she carried out a number of mining operations off the western coast of Scotland. Between these operations, Wells escorted convoys to and from Iceland. On 10 June 1941, while operating south of this strategic isle, she attacked a U-boat but without success. Two days later, she encountered another U-boat and went to the attack, but the explosion of her own depth charges damaged her and forced her to give up the search. Following refitting at Hull, England,