HMS Kempenfelt was a W-class destroyer

W and Z class destroyer

The W and Z class was a class of sixteen destroyers of the Royal Navy launched in 1943–1944. They were constructed as two flotillas, with names beginning with "W-" and "Z-", respectively, although, like the preceding U and V class, two of the flotilla leaders were named after historical naval...

 flotilla leader

Flotilla leader

A flotilla leader was a warship suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 that served in the Second World War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. She was the second destroyer of her name to have served in the war; the first Kempenfelt was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy

Royal Canadian Navy

The history of the Royal Canadian Navy goes back to 1910, when the naval force was created as the Naval Service of Canada and renamed a year later by King George V. The Royal Canadian Navy is one of the three environmental commands of the Canadian Forces...

 in October 1939 and renamed HMCS Assiniboine.

Construction and commissioning

Kempenfelt was ordered in December 1941 and was laid down at the Clydebank

Clydebank

Clydebank is a town in West Dunbartonshire, in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. Situated on the north bank of the River Clyde, Clydebank borders Dumbarton, the town with which it was combined to form West Dunbartonshire, as well as the town of Milngavie in East Dunbartonshire, and the Yoker and...

 yards of John Brown and Company. She was built as HMS Valentine, but this was changed to Kempenfelt as part of a rationalisation of the names used for the later wartime classes of destroyers. She was launched on 8 May 1943 and commissioned into service on 25 October 1943. During her time under construction she had been adopted by the civil community of Hammersmith

Hammersmith

Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...

 after a successful Warship Week

Warship Week

Warship Weeks were British National savings campaigns during the Second World War, with the adoption of a Royal Navy warship by a civil community. A level of savings would be set to raise enough money to provide the cost of building a particular naval ship...

 national savings campaign.

Mediterranean

Kempenfelt joined the 24th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean in December 1943, and in January was assigned to support the Allied landings at Anzio

Anzio

Anzio is a city and comune on the coast of the Lazio region of Italy, about south of Rome.Well known for its seaside harbour setting, it is a fishing port and a departure point for ferries and hydroplanes to the Pontine Islands of Ponza, Palmarola and Ventotene...

 (Operation Shingle

Operation Shingle

Operation Shingle , during the Italian Campaign of World War II, was an Allied amphibious landing against Axis forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno, Italy. The operation was commanded by Major General John P. Lucas and was intended to outflank German forces of the Winter Line and enable an...

). On 21 January she and the destroyers HMS Inglefield

HMS Inglefield (D02)

HMS Inglefield was an I-class destroyer leader built for the Royal Navy that served during World War II. She was the navy's last purpose-built flotilla leader. She was named after the 19th century Admiral Sir Edward Augustus Inglefield , and is so far the only warship to carry the name of that...

 and the Free French

Free French Naval Forces

Les Forces Navales Françaises Libres were the naval arm of the Free French Forces during the Second World War. They were commanded by Admiral Emile Muselier.- History :...

 Le Malin bombarded Gaeta

Gaeta

Gaeta is a city and comune in the province of Latina, in Lazio, central Italy. Set on a promontory stretching towards the Gulf of Gaeta, it is 120 km from Rome and 80 km from Naples....

, before deploying the next day with a number of destroyers as a screen for the cruisers HMS Orion

HMS Orion (85)

HMS Orion was a Leander class light cruiser which served with distinction in the Royal Navy during World War II.She received 13 battle honours, a record only exceeded by one other ship, and matched by two others.-History:...

 and HMS Spartan

HMS Spartan (95)

HMS Spartan was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Bellona subgroup of the Royal Navy. She was a modified Dido design with only four turrets but improved anti-aircraft armament - aka Dido Group 2. She was built by Vickers-Armstrongs , with the keel being laid down on 21 December 1939...

. On 27 January Kempenfelt shelled a train near Formia

Formia

Formia is a city and comune in the province of Latina, on the Mediterranean coast of Lazio . It is located halfway between Rome and Naples, and lies on the Roman-era Appian Way.-History:...

. After the completion of Operation Shingle she was released, and spent between February and April escorting convoys and patrolling in the central Mediterranean.

Normandy

In May Kempenfelt returned to the UK, joining the 26th Destroyer Flotilla in preparation for the invasion of Normandy. The flotilla were assigned to Force J, with orders to bombard the beach defences at Lagrune sur Mer. On 5 June she sailed as part of an escort for one of the invasion convoys, and on 6 June stood off the beach with Force J and provided fire support for the landings. Later in the day she moved to join HMS Diadem

HMS Diadem (84)

HMS Diadem was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Bellona subgroup of the Royal Navy. She was a modified Dido design with only four turrets but improved AA armament - aka Dido Group 2. She was built by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Limited , UK), with the keel being laid down on 15...

 in supporting the landings at Beny sur Mer. Kempenfelt returned to Britain in July, and was assigned to the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow

Scapa Flow

right|thumb|Scapa Flow viewed from its eastern endScapa Flow is a body of water in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, United Kingdom, sheltered by the islands of Mainland, Graemsay, Burray, South Ronaldsay and Hoy. It is about...

. She was then nominated to undergo a refit at Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 to prepare her to join the British Eastern Fleet

British Eastern Fleet

The British Eastern Fleet was a fleet of the Royal Navy which existed from 1941 to 1971...

 as the leader of the 27th Destroyer Flotilla. On 22 August she deployed with the flotilla as a screen for the aircraft carrier

Aircraft carrier

An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...

s HMS Indefatigable

HMS Indefatigable (R10)

HMS Indefatigable was an Implacable-class aircraft carrier of the British Royal Navy. Indefatigable was present at the formal surrender of the Japanese on 2 September in Tokyo Bay. She later helped to repatriate Allied POWs held in Japan and was used as a spotting ship for later US nuclear tests in...

, HMS Furious

HMS Furious (47)

HMS Furious was a modified cruiser built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Lord John Fisher, they were very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Furious was modified while...

 and HMS Formidable, the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 HMS Duke of York

HMS Duke of York (17)

HMS Duke of York was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy. Laid down in May 1937, the ship was constructed by John Brown and Company at Clydebank, Scotland, and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 4 November 1941, subsequently seeing service during the Second World War.In...

 and the cruiser

Cruiser

A cruiser is a type of warship. The term has been in use for several hundreds of years, and has had different meanings throughout this period...

s HMS Berwick

HMS Berwick (65)

HMS Berwick was a Royal Navy County class heavy cruiser, of the Kent subclass. She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company , with the keel being laid down on 15 September 1924...

 and HMS Devonshire

HMS Devonshire (39)

HMS Devonshire was a County-class heavy cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was part of the London subgroup of the County class, and saw service in the Second World War.-Early career:...

 for the air attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz

German battleship Tirpitz

Tirpitz was the second of two s built for the German Kriegsmarine during World War II. Named after Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz, the architect of the Imperial Navy, the ship was laid down at the Kriegsmarinewerft in Wilhelmshaven in November 1936 and launched two and a half years later in April...

 (Operation Goodwood). After being released from this service on 24 August, Kempenfelt sailed to Cardiff.

Far East

She spent September under refit, and after working up, sailed in October to join the Eastern Fleet at Ceylon. She joined the fleet at Trincomalee

Trincomalee

Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...

 on 22 November, and in December was nominate to screen the major fleet units as they carried out air attacks on oilfields on Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

 (Operation Outflank). She sailed on 17 December with the destroyers HMS Wessex

HMS Wessex (R78)

HMS Wessex was a W-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was to have been named HMS Zenith but was renamed in January 1943 before launching...

, Wrangler

HMS Wrangler (R48)

HMS Wrangler was an W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She was later converted into a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate, with the new pennant number F157....

, Whirlwind

HMS Whirlwind (R87)

The second HMS Whirlwind was an W-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II and the Cold War.Whirlwind was built by Hawthorn Leslie and was launched on 30 August 1943...

 and Wakeful, escorting the carriers HMS Illustrious and Indomitable, and the cruisers HMS Black Prince

HMS Black Prince (81)

HMS Black Prince was a Dido-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy, of the Bellona subgroup. The cruiser was commissioned in 1943, and served during World War II on the Arctic convoys, during the Normandy landings, and as part of the British Pacific Fleet. In 1946, the cruiser was loaned to the...

, Argonaut

HMS Argonaut (61)

HMS Argonaut was a Dido class cruiser-References:***...

 and Newcastle

HMS Newcastle (C76)

The seventh HMS Newcastle was a Town-class light cruiser of the British Royal Navy. She belonged to the Southampton subclass. In the Second World War following extensive battle damage sustained in the Mediterranean, she spent some time being repaired in New York.She also saw action in the Korean...

, and arrived in position on 20 December. The attacks were carried out and the fleet returned to Trincomalee.

Kempenfelt took part in further screening operations in January, covering fleet units for Operation Meridian

Operation Meridian

During World War II, Operation Meridian was a series of British air attacks conducted on 24 January and 29 January 1945 on Japanese-held oil refineries at Palembang, on Sumatra...

, before sailing for Fremantle

Fremantle, Western Australia

Fremantle is a city in Western Australia, located at the mouth of the Swan River. Fremantle Harbour serves as the port of Perth, the state capital. Fremantle was the first area settled by the Swan River colonists in 1829...

 at the end of the month with the ships of Force 63. They arrived on 4 February, before transferring to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, where they carried out exercises with elements of the US Navy. They sailed on 28 February to join the British Pacific Fleet

British Pacific Fleet

The British Pacific Fleet was a British Commonwealth naval force which saw action against Japan during World War II. The fleet was composed of British Commonwealth naval vessels. The BPF formally came into being on 22 November 1944...

 at its forward base at Manus

Manus Island

Manus Island is part of Manus Province in northern Papua New Guinea and is the largest island of the Admiralty Islands. It is the fifth largest island in Papua New Guinea with an area of 2,100 km², measuring around 100 km × 30 km. According to the 2000 census, Manus Island had a...

, in the Admiralty Islands

Admiralty Islands

The Admiralty Islands are a group of eighteen islands in the Bismarck Archipelago, to the north of New Guinea in the south Pacific Ocean. These are also sometimes called the Manus Islands, after the largest island. These rainforest-covered islands form part of Manus Province, the smallest and...

. The force, designated Task Force 113 carried out screening duties throughout March, before being assigned to the United States Fifth Fleet on 22 March. The force then supported the US Fleet in its preparation for the Battle of Okinawa

Battle of Okinawa

The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg, was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945...

 (Operation Iceberg). Kempenfelt remained on station throughout April, before sailing for the US Forward-base at Leyte

Leyte

Leyte is a province of the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital is Tacloban City and occupies the northern three-quarters of the Leyte Island. Leyte is located west of Samar Island, north of Southern Leyte and south of Biliran...

, arriving there on 24 April.

On 1 May Kempenfelt and a number of British destroyers screened operations off Okinawa, before Kempenfelt was deployed on 11 May as a screen for HMS Swiftsure

HMS Swiftsure (08)

HMS Swiftsure was a Minotaur-class light cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 22 September 1941, launched on 4 February 1943 by Lady Wake-Walker and commissioned on 22 June 1944....

, to provide advance warning of incoming kamikaze

Kamikaze

The were suicide attacks by military aviators from the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, designed to destroy as many warships as possible....

 attacks. She was detached on 22 May to escort HMS Formidable to Manus, after the Formidable had been damaged by a kamikaze. She escorted Formidable to Sydney in June, after which Kempenfelt underwent a refit. On its completion, she returned to Manus in August, and on 15 August she sailed to Subic Bay

Subic Bay

Subic Bay is a bay forming part of Luzon Sea on the west coast of the island of Luzon in Zambales, Philippines, about 100 kilometers northwest of Manila Bay. Its shores were formerly the site of a major United States Navy facility named U.S...

 to join the taskforce assembling to reoccupy Hong Kong

Hong Kong

Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

. She sailed on 27 August with the destroyers Whirlwind, Quadrant

HMAS Quadrant (G11)

HMAS Quadrant , named for the navigational instrument, was a Q class destroyer operated by the Royal Navy as HMS Quadrant during World War II, and the Royal Australian Navy from 1945 to 1957...

 and Ursa

HMS Ursa (R22)

HMS Ursa was a U-class destroyer of the British Royal Navy that saw service during World War II. She was later converted into a Type 15 fast anti-submarine frigate, with the new pennant number F200.In September 1955 at Chatham dockyard...

 screening the carriers HMS Indomitable and Venerable

HMS Venerable (R63)

HMS Venerable was a Colossus-class aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. She served for only the last few months of World War II, and in 1948 she was sold to the Netherlands and renamed HNLMS Karel Doorman and taking part in the military clash in 1962 in Western New Guinea...

, and the cruisers HMS Swiftsure, Eurylaus

HMS Euryalus (42)

HMS Euryalus was a Dido-class cruiser of the Royal Navy. She was built at Chatham Dockyard UK), with the keel being laid down on 21 October 1937. She was launched on 6 June 1939, and commissioned 30 June 1941. Euryalus was the last cruiser that Chatham Dockyard built.-Mediterranean Service:-Second...

 and Black Prince to oversee the surrender.

Post war

Kempenfelt remained with the British Pacific Fleet until December 1945. She returned to Chatham

Chatham Dockyard

Chatham Dockyard, located on the River Medway and of which two-thirds is in Gillingham and one third in Chatham, Kent, England, came into existence at the time when, following the Reformation, relations with the Catholic countries of Europe had worsened, leading to a requirement for additional...

 in January 1946 where she was reduced to the reserve

Reserve fleet

A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed, and thus partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern U.S....

. She spent two years in the reserve, before transferring to Simonstown, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. She returned to Britain in 1953 and was laid up at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

, before being placed on the disposal list. She and her sister, HMS Wager, were sold to Yugoslavia

Yugoslav Navy

The Yugoslav Navy was the navy of Yugoslavia. It was essentially a coastal defense force with the mission of preventing enemy landings along the Yugoslavia's rugged 4,000- kilometer shoreline or coastal islands, and contesting an enemy blockade or control of the strategic Strait of Otranto...

in 1956, being towed to Yugoslavia for a refit in October. Kempenfelt was renamed Kotor and served until being decommissioned and scrapped in 1971.

External links

• HMS Kempenfelt's career