Orsa class escorts
Time to justify some of my choices...
1st, the Orsas...
There were lots of excelent escort vessel designs being built in 1939, but one country had already comissioned an excelent well balanced one. The Italians had taken the basic 600t torpedo boat concept, enlarged it to increase range at the cost of a slight reduction on speed, given it a reduced gun armement but a much stronger ASW fit, and came up with a superb multirole escort.
840t standard
28 knots
2x100mm guns
8xAA HMG (later replaced by 7x20mm)
4x 18''TT
6

CT
fitted for 20 mines giving them adicional multi role capability
good combat record
"
PegasoBS
Napoletani8 December 1936Sank British submarines
HMS Upholder and
HMS Thorn. She was part of the screen of destroyers and torpedo boats escorting a four-freighter convoy to Tripoli on 26 May 1941,
[3] when two
Blenheim bombers were shot down.
[4] She also took part in the shooting down of a
Beaufort bomber and a
Beaufighter while escorting another convoy on 21 August 1942" wiki
and they looked good