HMS Balfour was a of the Royal Navy which served during World War II. She was built as a TE (Buckley) type destroyer escort in the United States and delivered to the Royal Navy under the Lend-Lease arrangement. Construction and design The was one of six classes of destroyer escorts built for the US Navy to meet the massive demand for escort vessels following the United States's entry into World War Two. While basically similar, the different classes were fitted with different propulsion gear and armament. The Buckleys had a turbo-electric drive, and a main gun armament of 3-inch guns. The Buckley- (or TE) class ships were long overall and between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a mean draft of . Displacement was standard and full load. Two boilers fed steam to steam turbines which drove electrical generators, with in turn powered electric motors that propelled the ship. The machinery was rated at , giving a speed of . of oil was carried, giving a range of at . The ship's main gun armament consisted of three 3-inch (76 mm) 50 caliber dual-purpose (i.e. anti-surface and anti-aircraft) guns, two forward and one aft, in open mounts. Close in armament consisted of two 40 mm Bofors guns, backed up by eight single Oerlikon 20 mm cannon. A triple mount of 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes provided a capability against larger ships, while anti-submarine armament consisted of a Hedgehog forward-firing anti-submarine mortar and four depth charge throwers and two depth charge rails. Crew was 200 officers and other ranks. The ship, which was originally planned to become USS McAnn with the hull number DE-73, was laid down on 19 April 1943 at Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Hingham Shipyard, in Hingham, Massachusetts. DE-73 was re-allocated to Great Britain under the Lend-Lease programme on 10 June 1943. The ship was launched on 10 July 1943, with the name HMS Balfour and commissioned on 7 October 1943, with the pennant number K464. Commanding officers Commanding Officers were Lt Cdr C D B Coventry RN on commissioning with Cdr C Gwinner RN (Senior Officer 1st Escort Group) taking over after the loss of on 26 December 1944 when HMS Balfour became the lead ship for the 1st Escort Group. Actions HMS Balfour served with both the 1st Escort Group and 18th Escort Group earning battle honours for service in the North Atlantic, off Normandy and in