Town-class destroyer
The rivers selected for the Town class were on the border between Canada and the United States, with the exception of Annapolis — the name of both a river in Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, and the location of the United States Naval Academy.In the Commando raid Operation Chariot, Campbeltown, fitted with a large demolition charge, rammed the gates of the Normandie dock at Saint-Nazaire, France.This exploit was depicted in the 1950 Trevor Howard film The Gift Horse, which starred HMS Leamington (ex-USS Twiggs) after her return from service in the Soviet Union.Built for service during the First World War, but in the main completed after the end of that conflict, the flush-deckers were, by 1940, the oldest destroyers in the US Navy, and many had been mothballed for the inter-war period.Their turning circle was enormous, as big as most Royal Navy battleships, making them difficult to use in a submarine hunt which demanded tight manoeuvres, compounded by unreliable "chain and cog" steering gear laid across the main deck.