Generally referred to as «120 tons» (also known as the «flush bridge» or «four-piper» after their four cheaters), the destroyers became the class of the British Town and were named after common cities in the United States and the United Kingdom. [1] Roosevelt used an executive agreement that did not require congressional approval, but he was attacked by anti-war political elements. The agreement violated the laws of neutrality. [2] The agreement was negotiated by correspondence between U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and the British Ambassador to the United States. The lease was guaranteed for a term of 99 years, «free of all rents and charges that are not agreed upon by such compensation to be paid by the United States.» The agreement also granted U.S. air and naval base rights: the Base Destroyer Agreement was an agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom on September 2, 1940, under which 50 U.S. Navy-class Caldwell, Wickes and Clemson-class destroyers were ceded to the Royal Navy by the U.S. Navy in exchange for land rights held by the United Kingdom. The agreement was much more important because it was the beginning of the Anglo-American partnership during the war. Churchill told Parliament that «these two great organizations of English-speaking democracies, the British Empire and the United States, must be mixed in some of their affairs, with mutual and general benefit.» [3] The Bermuda Base Agreement provided that the United States would build, at its own expense, an airfield capable of operating large land-based aircraft jointly operated by the U.S. Army Air Force and the Royal Air Force.

The airfield was named Kindley Field (after Field Kindley, an American aircraft that fought for Britain during the First World War). RAF Transport Command transferred operations to the airfield when it was completed in 1943, although RAF Ferry Command remained on Darrell`s Island. Previously, the U.S. Navy had installed the naval base in Bermuda`s West End. It was a flying navigation station from which maritime patrols were operated for the remainder of the war (the U.S. Navy had effectively begun conducting such seaplane patrols from RAF Darrell Island, pending the commissioning of its own base). The RAF and FAA facilities were closed after the war, so that only U.S. air bases in Bermuda remained.

The naval operating base no longer became an air station in 1965, when its ships were replaced by Lockheed P-2 Neptunes, operated from Kindley Air Force Base (like the former U.S. Army airfield). These American air bases were only two of the many U.S. military installations operated in Bermuda in the 20th century. The United States abandoned many of these bases in 1949 and the remaining few were closed in 1995. On 2 September 1940, as the battle for Britain intensified, Foreign Minister Cordell Hull signed his agreement to transfer the warships to the Royal Navy.