HMS Kempenfelt (R03)

HMS Kempenfelt being towed into Newcastle after serving off the Normandy coast
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Kempenfelt
Namesake:	Richard Kempenfelt
Ordered:	December 1941
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Laid down:	24 June 1942
Launched:	8 May 1943
Commissioned:	25 October 1943
Out of service:	Sold to Yugoslavia in October 1956
Motto:	Fideliter: Faithfully
Honours and awards:	Atlantic 1939 Anzio 1944 Normandy 1944 Okinawa 1945
Notes:	Pennant number: R03 later changed to D103
Badge:	On a field Black a Swan proper between two wings Green over wavelets Silver and Blue.
Yugoslavia
Name:	Kotor
Acquired:	October 1956
Identification:	R-21
Fate:	Decommissioned in 1971 and sold for scrapping
General characteristics
Class and type:	W-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,710 tons (1,730 tonnes) 2,530 tons full (2,570 tonnes)
Length:	362.75 ft (110.57 m) o/a
Beam:	35.75 ft (10.90 m)
Draught:	10 ft (3.0 m)
Propulsion:	2 Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Parsons single-reduction geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (30 MW), 2 shafts
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph) / 32 knots (59 km/h; 37 mph) full
Range:	4,675 nmi (8,658 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement:	225
Sensors and processing systems:	Radar Type 272 target indication Radar Type 291 air warning Radar Type 285 fire control on director Mk.III(W) Radar Type 282 fire control on 40 mm mount Mk.IV
Armament:	4 × QF4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk.IX guns on single mounts CP Mk.XXII 4 × QF 2-pounder (40 mm) Mk VIII guns, quad mount Mk.VII 4 × A/A mountings; twin 20 mm Oerlikon Mk.V single Bofors 40 mm Mk.III guns single QF 2 pdr Mk.XVI 8 (4x2) tubes for 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo Mk.IX 2 racks & 4 throwers for 70 depth charges
Aircraft carried:	None

HMS Kempenfelt was a W-class destroyer flotilla leader of the Royal Navy that served in the Second World War. She was the second destroyer of her name to have served in the war; the first Kempenfelt was transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy in October 1939 and renamed HMCS Assiniboine.

Kempenfelt was ordered in December 1941 and was laid down at the Clydebank 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 after a successful Warship Week national savings campaign.

Kempenfelt joined the 24th Destroyer Flotilla in the Mediterranean in December 1943, and in January was assigned to support the Allied landings at Anzio (Operation Shingle). On 21 January she and the destroyers Inglefield and the Free French Le Malin bombarded Gaeta, before deploying the next day with a number of destroyers as a screen for the cruisers Orion and Spartan. On 27 January Kempenfelt shelled a train near Formia. After the completion of Operation Shingle she was released, and spent between February and April escorting convoys and patrolling in the central Mediterranean.