HMS Kingston (F64) was a K-class destroyer

Destroyer

In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...

 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...

 laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes

Cowes

Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...

 on the Isle of Wight

Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...

 on 6 October 1937 as part of an order for six similar destroyers.

She was launched at East Cowes on 9 January 1939 and named by the Mayoress of Kingston upon Thames

Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames is a borough in southwest London, England. The main town is Kingston upon Thames and it includes Surbiton, Chessington, New Malden and Tolworth. It is the oldest of the three Royal Boroughs in England, the others are Kensington and Chelsea, also in London,...

. Commissioned on 14 September 1939 she joined 5th Destroyer Flotilla, Home Fleet, for convoy defence and anti-submarine duties in the North Sea.

In company with the destroyers and , Kingston attacked the in the North Sea

North Sea

In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...

 off Shetland on 29 November 1939, and sank her. All the crew of the U-boat were saved.

In May 1940 transferred to the Red Sea. Pennant number for visual signalling purposes changed to G64. In June took part in the sinking of the Italian submarine Torricelli off Perim

Perim

Perim is a volcanic island strategically located in the Strait of Mandeb at the southern entrance into the Red Sea, off the southwestern coast of Yemen, at . It has a surface area of 13 square kilometers and rises to an altitude of 65 meters. The island has a natural harbour on its southwestern...

 Island, and later attacked the Italian submarine Perla.

On 2 May 1941 she found the Italian destroyers Pantera and Tigre

Leone class destroyer

The Leone class were a group of destroyers built for the Italian Navy in the early 1920s. Five ships were planned and three completed. All three ships were based at Massawa, Eritrea during World War II and were sunk during the East African Campaign....

 aground south of Jeddah

Jeddah

Jeddah, Jiddah, Jidda, or Jedda is a city located on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest city in Makkah Province, the largest sea port on the Red Sea, and the second largest city in Saudi Arabia after the capital city, Riyadh. The...

 whose hulls, having been scuttled by the Italians, were subsequently destroyed by gunfire and air attack.

On 17 March she supported landings at Berbera

Berbera

Berbera is a city and seat of Berbera District in Somaliland, a self-proclaimed Independent Republic with de facto control over its own territory, which is recognized by the international community and the Somali Government as a part of Somalia...

.

In April 1941 Kingston was deployed to Alexandria to join the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet, where it was involved in the evacuation of Allied troops from mainland Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 to Crete

Crete

Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...

 in April.

On 20 May deployed as part of Force C to Battle of Crete

Battle of Crete

The Battle of Crete was a battle during World War II on the Greek island of Crete. It began on the morning of 20 May 1941, when Nazi Germany launched an airborne invasion of Crete under the code-name Unternehmen Merkur...

.

On the night of 21 May Force C intercepted a convoy of 20 troop carrying caiques

Caïque

A caïque , is the term for a traditional fishing boat usually found among the waters of the Ionian or Aegean Seas, and also a light skiff used on the Bosporus. It is traditionally a small wooden trading vessel, brightly painted and rigged for sail...

 escorted by the Italian torpedo boat Lupo heading for Crete. Ten of the caiques were sunk and the landing prevented, but Lupo successfully covered the withdrawal of the remainder of the convoy.

On 22 May Force C was sent to the Aegean sea

Aegean Sea

The Aegean Sea[p] is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosporus...

 through the Kasos

Kasos

Kasos is a Greek island municipality in the Dodecanese. It is the southernmost island in the Aegean Sea, and is part of the Karpathos peripheral unit. As of 2001, its population was 990. The island has been called in , .-Geography:...

 strait to intercept a further invasion convoy of 30 caiques, escorted by the Italian torpedo boat Sagittario

Spica class torpedo boat

The Spica-class were a class of torpedo boats of the Regia Marina during World War II. These ships were built as a result of a clause in the Washington Naval Treaty, which stated that ships with a tonnage of less than 600 tons could be built in unlimited numbers...

. One detached caique was sunk and, though there was no attack on the main convoy, the Germans were forced to abort the attempt to reach Crete. Kingston suffered minor damage from return fire by Sagittario, which also launched her torpedoes while protecting the retreat of the caiques. Force C suffered major damage from air attacks which continued when they joined up with Force A1 at the Kithera channel. Kingston and were sent to pick up survivors when the destroyer was sunk. Later the same day the cruiser and were sunk by air attacks, and on 23 May Kingston and Kandahar returned and rescued 523 survivors.

Returned to Alexandria on 24 May, and taken in hand for repairs.

In 1941 the after set of torpedo-tubes were replaced by a 4-inch AA gun.

Kingston was engaged on defensive convoy duties to Tobruk and often as part of the escort for Breconshire on runs to Malta. Also was in action against enemy convoys, and against the Vichy French

Vichy France

Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...

 in Syria.

On 17 December 1941 took part in brief engagement with the Italian Fleet, known as the First Battle of Sirte

First Battle of Sirte

The First Battle of Sirte was fought between the British Royal Navy and the Regia Marina during the Mediterranean campaign of the Second World War. The engagement took place on 17 December 1941, southeast of Malta, in the Gulf of Sirte...

.

On 22 March 1942 Kingston took part in the Second Battle of Sirte

Second Battle of Sirte

The Second Battle of Sirte was a naval engagement in which the escorting warships of a British convoy to Malta frustrated a much more powerful Regia Marina squadron. The British convoy was composed of four merchant ships escorted by four light cruisers, one anti-aircraft cruiser, and 17 destroyers...

, where, as the destroyers turned to fire their torpedoes on the Italian battle fleet, she was hit by a 15-inch shell fired by the Italian battleship Littorio

Italian battleship Littorio

|-External links:...

 which passed right through the ship and burst outside her; despite this, she fired three torpedoes. Fifteen men of her crew were killed in this incident, which left the destroyer temporarily dead in the water, her whaler torn apart, her anti-aircraft guns, searchlight tower and torpedo launchers obliterated by the explosion. According to some authors, like James Sadkovich and Vincent O'Hara, she was struck by an 8-inch round from the heavy cruiser . With an engine in flames and a flooded boiler, she managed however to recover speed, reaching Malta the next day.

Whilst in dock at Malta repairing damage from this encounter, Kingston was attacked by German aircraft and on 5 April was further damaged by a near miss. On 8 April she was hit by a bomb, forwards. This penetrated through the decks and passed out of the ships bottom without exploding. But now the destroyer needed to go into dock for underwater repairs. On 9 April she was placed in No. 4 dock, but remained afloat. By 11 April she was still afloat in the dock. - perhaps plates bent outwards by the passage of the bomb through the bottom made it impossible to dock-down and these plates were being burnt away by divers. At about 17.30 on 11 April 1942 she was hit on the port side amidships in the area of the bulkhead between the engine-room and the gearing-room. She rolled over on her port side and sank in the dock. The ship was declared a constructive total loss. On 21 January 1943 the No. 4 dock was dried-out. The damaged midships part of the destroyer was scrapped, thus separating the destroyer in two sections. Dummy bulkheads were fitted to make the two sections floatable while an amount of the superstructure was burnt away. The two sections of the Kingston were floated out of the dock on 5 April 1943 and in June were scuttled as a blockship between the Selmun headland and Selmunett Island (St Paul's Island) in northern Malta in the preparations for making a safe anchorage before the invasion of Sicily. In the early 1950s the two sections of the Kingston were scrapped, where sunk, by Italian shipbreakers.

On 4 April 1942 a bomb fell directly at the entrance of the Corradino tunnel. Among those killed by the blast were three officers of Kingston Commander Peter (or Philip) Somerville DSO., Lieut. P. Hague and Sub. Lt. J. Carter, as well as five other sailors of the destroyer. Cdr. Somerville is buried at the Mtarfa Military Cemetery.

External links

• uboat.net webpage about HMS Kingston
• Memories of a seaman from the HMS Kingston
• Photos of HMS Kingston in No. 4 dock
• History of HMS Kingston