HMS Starling, pennant number U66, was a Modified Black Swan-class sloop of the Royal Navy. She was active in the Battle of the Atlantic during the Second World War and was the most successful anti-submarine warfare vessel of the Royal Navy, being credited with the destruction of fourteen U-boats. Construction Starling was ordered on 18 July 1941 under the 1940 Supplementary War Building Programme; she was laid down by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company at Govan, Scotland, on 21 October 1941. She was launched on 14 October 1942, and commissioned on 1 April 1943, with a build time of 17 months and 10 days. Service history Starling joined Western Approaches Command in April 1943 under the command of Captain Frederic John Walker, leader of the 2nd Support Group (2SG). This was a flotilla of six sloops not tied down to convoy protection, but free to hunt down U-boats wherever found. The other ships of the group were , , , , and . Starlings first patrol in May 1943 was uneventful; There were several major convoy battles during the month, but none involving 2 SG. Starlings first success came on 1 June 1943, when the group's first U-boat was detected: fortuitously on a fine day and identified by a Lt. Earl Howe Pitt. This event was dubbed another "Glorious First of June" by Walker. Over a 15-hour period the group found, tracked and destroyed , in the longest hunt of the Atlantic campaign up to that point, On their return to Liverpool, Starling and 2SG were assigned to "Operation Musketry", an attempt, in concert with Coastal Command, to interdict the U-boat transit routes across the Bay of Biscay. On 24 June 1943 the group was successful in destroying two U-boats; Starling destroyed , but was damaged when she rammed the U-boat to dispatch it. She was forced to return to Britain for repairs, under the temporary command of Cdr. DEG Wemyss of Wild Goose, Walker having stayed with the group. In October, on returning to the group, Starling was involved in the battle around convoy ON 207. No successes were recorded, though the convoy battle saw three U-boats destroyed, with no ships lost. In November 1943, in operations around HX 264, Starling and 2 SG accounted for two more U-boats, and . In December, while in support of SL 140/MKS 31, Starling attacked and damaged , forcing it to abandon