Ships · United Kingdom · 1940-1945
Bangor-class minesweeper
minesweeper
The Bangor class was a Royal Navy design intended as a coastal equivalent to the larger Halcyon-class fleet minesweeper, ordered from 1939 as wartime demand outstripped Halcyon production capacity. Over 60 were built across three propulsion variants (diesel, turbine, and reciprocating engines) and served with the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Royal Indian Navy, and Imperial Japanese Navy, clearing mines in the English Channel, the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic approaches. The class had a reputation for poor seaworthiness, with a shallow draft that made some hulls unstable in heavy weather, and several were lost to mines and torpedo attack, including HMCS Esquimalt in 1945. Survivors were transferred after the war to Norway, Portugal, Egypt, Turkey, Pakistan, and Greece.
| displacement | 590-672 tons standard (variant-dependent) |
|---|---|
| armament | 1x 12-pounder gun, machine guns/Oerlikon cannon, minesweeping gear |
| crew | 60-87 |
| built | 60+ vessels (RN, RCN, RIN, IJN) |
Western Europe, Battle of the Atlantic, Mediterranean and North Africa, Pacific
