Returning to the United States, Conner joined in fleet maneuvers in Narragansett Bay off Rhode Island in the summer of 1919, and entered the Philadelphia Navy Yard at Philadelphia on 4 October 1919. Later she lay in reserve at Norfolk, Virginia, until May 1921, when she participated in large-scale fleet exercises with a reduced complement. She remained at Newport, Rhode Island, for operations with submarines. Between 13 October 1921 and 29 March 1922, she lay at Charleston, South Carolina, returning then to Philadelphia, where she was decommissioned on 21 June 1922.
In July 1940, the US Navy ordered Conner to be rearmed as an escort vessel, with two sets of torpedo tubes and the aft 4-inch gun to be replaced by 3-inch/50 caliber anti-aircraft guns. This process was interrupted by the decision to transfer 50 old destroyers, including Conner, to the United Kingdom under the Destroyers for Bases Agreement.[2][3]Conner was recommissioned on 23 August 1940 and fitted out at Philadelphia. Designated for inclusion in the fulfilllment of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement, she proceeded to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where she was decommissioned 23 October 1940
Royal Navy
HMS Leeds
The destroyer was transferred to the United Kingdom and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS Leeds on 23 October 1940, the day of her transfer.
Leeds cleared Halifax on 1 November 1940 bound for Belfast, Northern Ireland, where she arrived on 10 November 1940. Under the Rosyth Command, she escorted convoys in the North Sea between the Thames and the Firth of Forth, successfully weathering many air attacks. On 20 April 1942, she went to the aid of the destroyer HMS Cotswold, towing her into Harwich. She drove German E-boats away from her convoy on the night of 24–25 February 1944.
Leeds was placed in reserve at Grangemouth on the Firth of Forth in April 1945. She was sold for scrapping on 4 March 1947 and broken up.
Friedman, Norman (2009). British Destroyers: From Earliest Days to the Second World War. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth Publishing. ISBN978-1-84832-049-9.
Friedman, Norman (1982). U.S. Destroyers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press. ISBN0-87021-733-X.
Gardiner, Robert; Gray, Randal (1985). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN0-85177-245-5.
Hague, Arnold (1988). The Towns: A history of the fifty destroyers transferred from the United States to Great Britain in 1940. Kendal, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN0-905617-48-7.
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United States
United Kingdom
