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An Escort Group consisted of several small warships organized and trained to operate together providing protection for trade convoys. Escort groups were a second world war tactical innovation in anti-submarine warfare by the Royal Navy to combat the threat of the ''Kriegsmarine''s "wolfpack" tactics. Early escort groups often contained destroyers, sloops, naval trawlers and, later, corvettes of differing specifications lacking the ability to maneuver together as a flotilla of similar warships, but rigorously trained in anti-submarine tactics to use teamwork emphasizing the unique sensors, weapons, speed and turning radius of each ship. The development of these 'escort groups' proved an effective means of defending shipping convoys through the Battle of the Atlantic. ==Background== On the basis of experience during World War I, the Admiralty instituted trade convoys in United Kingdom coastal waters from September 1939.〔Hague 2000 p.23〕 During the first year of the Battle of the Atlantic British convoy protection was the responsibility of the Western Approaches Command (WAC), based first in Plymouth, then, as the focus of the campaign moved after the 1940 Fall of France, in Liverpool. The newest and most capable destroyers were assigned to screen capital ships of the Home Fleet; so, to augment the inadequate number of purpose-designed sloops, WAC was allocated a leftover array of limited production prototypes, ships built to foreign specifications, minesweepers, militarized yachts and fishing trawlers, and survivors of elderly destroyer classes no longer considered suitable for operation with the Home Fleet. These escorts were not numerous enough or sufficiently long ranged to accompany convoys across the Atlantic, but would screen convoys to and from meeting points thought to be beyond U-boat range defining the edge of the Western Approaches. Convoy escorts were initially assigned on an ''ad hoc'' basis, dispatched as and when available, and arrived singly or in small groups. Command of the escort force fell to the senior officer present, and could change as each new ship arrived. Any tactical arrangements had to be made on the spot, and communicated by signal lamp to each ship in turn. The ships were unaccustomed to working together, and often had no common battle plan or tactics. These deficiencies led to a major defeat in October 1940 when Convoy HX 79 from Halifax to Liverpool was attacked by a wolfpack of five U-boats remaining after an attack on convoy SC 7. Initially unprotected, a force of 11 warships were assembled but 12 ships in the convoy were sunk from attacks during the night while none of the U-boats were damaged. The loss of ships from both SC 7 and HX 79 gave the impetus for Admiral Percy Noble, the commander-in-chief of WAC, to form discrete groups. These Escort Groups often consisted of mixed types of small warships, but later were sometimes formed from a single class (e.g. the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 15th and 21st Escort Groups were composed entirely of Captain-class frigates when these ships became available to replace the older ships originally assigned to those groups.) 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Escort Group」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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