HMS Kimberley (F50)

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History
United Kingdom
Name	HMS Kimberley
Builder	Woolston, Hampshire
Laid down	17 January 1938
Launched	1 June 1939
Commissioned	21 December 1939
Motto	Post tenbras lux : 'After darkness light'
Fate	Sold for scrap, 30 March 1949
Notes	Badge: On a Field barry wavy of six White and Blue a diamond with rays White, charges with a lion rampant Black
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type	K-class destroyer
Displacement	1,690 long tons (1,720 t) ( standard ) 2,330 long tons (2,370 t) ( deep load )
Length	356 ft 6 in (108.66 m) o/a
Beam	35 ft 9 in (10.90 m)
Draught	12 ft 6 in (3.81 m) (deep)
Installed power	44,000 shp (33,000 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion	2 × shafts; 2 × geared steam turbines
Speed	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement	183 (218 for flotilla leaders)
Sensors and processing systems	ASDIC
Armament	3 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × quadruple anti-aircraft guns 2 × quadruple anti-aircraft machineguns 2 × quintuple torpedo tubes 20 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

HMS Kimberley was a

Kimberley was dispatched with HMS Eskimo and HMS Penelope on 11 April to attack German transports that had been reported at Bodø. Penelope ran aground whilst attempting to enter the fjord at Fleinvær, and had to be towed clear by Eskimo. They then successfully entered the fjord but did not find any ships. They returned to support fleet operations off Narvik. Kimberley then took part in the Second Battle of Narvik, during which she attempted to tow HMS Cossack to safety, after Cossack had been damaged by German destroyers and disabled. The attempt failed, but Cossack was later towed clear by HMS Forester. Kimberley was left on patrol at Narvik. Several crew members were killed when a boarding party was sent into Narvik to disable a German seaplane. Kimberley then returned to Scapa Flow.

Arrival in the Mediterranean

She was nominated to serve in the Mediterranean in May, and underwent preparation for foreign service that saw the damage sustained during the Norwegian operations being repaired. Her pennant number was also changed, to G50. She left Britain on 16 May, in company with her sisters,

On 22 July she and the destroyers HMS Hasty, Havock, Jackal, Jaguar, Jervis, Kandahar, Kingston, Nizam and Nubian formed a screen for the battleships HMS Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, the cruisers HMS Ajax, HMAS Hobart, HMS Leander, Naiad, Neptune, Phoebe and Abdiel as they carried out a diversionary operation in the eastern Mediterranean to divert attention away from Operation Substance, a Malta relief convoy. Kimberley was deployed in support of army operations against Tobruk, and screening fleet units as they searched for enemy supply convoys throughout August to October 1941.

She was transferred in November to join the cruisers

She next sailed from Malta on 5 December, with HMS Kingston and Lively, and the cruisers Ajax and Neptune. They formed the escort for the fast supply ship HMS Breconshire, during her passage to meet the ships out of Alexandria. Ajax, Neptune and Lively were detached on 6 December and returned to Malta. Kimberley remained with the Breconshire. They were joined on 7 December by HMAS Hobart, but she was soon detached to go to the assistance of HMS Flamingo, which had been damaged off Tobruk. Kimberley and Kingston arrived at Alexandria with the Breconshire on 8 December. On 15 December Kimberley joined the cruisers HMS Carlisle, Euryalus and Naiad and the destroyers Hasty, Havock, Jervis, Kingston, Kipling, Decoy and Nizam in forming Force C, which was assigned to escort the Breconshire to Malta. By 16 December unconfirmed reports of Italian battle group escorting a supply convoy to Benghazi had reached the British force. The force was sighted on 17 December, and the Breconshire was detached from Force C, escorted by Decoy and Havock. Kimberley remained with Force C. A brief engagement followed, later becoming known as the First Battle of Sirte, in which the Italian warships withdrew after the British destroyers attempted to approach to make torpedo attacks. Kimberley returned to Alexandria on 18 December with the rest of the escorts.

Torpedoing

1942 saw her deployed in support of the Tobruk garrison, as well as continued to provide escort and defence for convoys. On 12 January, whilst off Tobruk she was struck by a torpedo fired by

In July she was nominated to take part in special duties during the planned allied landings in the south of France (

On 1 September she began a series of bombardments in the Rimini area, and having completed these by 13 September she resumed her patrolling. In October she was transferred to the British Aegean Force, in order to support the landings to reoccupy the Greek mainland (Operation Manna). She intercepted the hospital ship Gradisca on 29 October, and took her as a prize. She carried out interception patrols throughout November, in order to prevent the evacuation of German personnel from occupied territory. On 5 November she sank an F lighter off Piscopi and carried out a bombardment at Alimnia on 11 November. She remained in the Aegean throughout December and in January 1945 was acting in support of operations on the Greek mainland. She was at Athens during the communist rising.

Kimberley took part in a raid on Rhodes on 1 May with HMS Catterick and the Greek destroyer Kriti. She was off Rhodes on 8 May 1945 when Major General Wagner, Commander of German forces in the Dodecanese, and two of his staff officers came aboard her to formally surrender. They came alongside on a motor launch they had captured from the British some months previously.^[1] The Kimberley took Wagner to the island of Symi, where the unconditional surrender of German forces in the region was signed. Kimberley landed an armed party the next day and confined the Germans to quarters. She later transported the 117 Germans to Alexandria. She remained in the Mediterranean after the end of the war, taking passage to the UK in August. She was paid off in September, was de-stored and then reduced to the reserve.

Post war

Kimberley was initially laid up at Dartmouth, but was then transferred to Harwich. She was placed on the disposal list in 1948, and was then selected to take part in ship target trials in the Clyde area. She was towed there from Harwich, and after these had been completed, she was sold to West of Scotland Shipbreakers on 30 March 1949. HMS Kimberley arrived at their yards at Troon in June for scrapping, one of only two of the K class to have survived the war.

Notes

References

• ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8
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• English, John (2001). Afridi to Nizam: British Fleet Destroyers 1937–43. Gravesend, Kent: World Ship Society.
  ISBN 0-905617-64-9
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• Friedman, Norman (2006). British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 1-86176-137-6
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• Haarr, Geirr H. (2010). The Battle for Norway: April–June 1940. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-59114-051-1
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• Haarr, Geirr H. (2009). The German Invasion of Norway, April 1940. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 978-1-59114-310-9
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• Langtree, Charles (2002). The Kelly's: British J, K, and N Class Destroyers of World War II. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 1-55750-422-9
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• ISBN 1-55750-048-7
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• March, Edgar J. (1966). British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953; Drawn by Admiralty Permission From Official Records & Returns, Ships' Covers & Building Plans. London: Seeley Service.
  OCLC 164893555
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• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 1-59114-119-2
  .
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press.
  ISBN 0-87021-326-1
  .

Wikimedia Commons has media related to HMS Kimberley (F50).

• HMS Kimberley at uboat.net
• HMS Kimberley on naval-history.net