HMS Kempenfelt (I18)

HMS "Kempenfelt" was a C class destroyer of the Royal Navy that served in the interwar and period, as well as the Second World War. A flotilla leader, she was the last of her class to be transferred to the Royal Canadian Navy. She served with them throughout the rest of the war, surviving it to be broken up after its end.

Commissioning and early years

HMS "Kempenfelt" was ordered under the 1929 Naval Estimates and was laid down on 18 October 1930 at the yards of J. Samuel White, Cowes. She was launched a year later on 29 October 1931 and was commissioned on 30 May 1932. She was immediately put into service, and would remain continuously active until the outbreak of war in September 1939.

Wartime service and transfer

"Kempenfelt" took up her war station in September with the 18th Destroyer Flotilla, operating out of Plymouth and carrying out convoy defence duties and anti-submarine patrols in the English Channel and the South Western Approaches. On 3 September she was deployed with the A class destroyers HMS "Acasta", HMS "Acheron", HMS "Antelope" and HMS "Ardent", then based at Portland. On 9 September "Kempenfelt" and the destroyers "Ardent" and "Echo" escorted the aircraft carrier HMS "Courageous" on an anti-submarine operation (Operation AS2). "Kempenfelt" then returned to Plymouth on 14 September to prepare for her transfer to the Royal Canadian Navy.

On 28 September 1939 "Kempenfelt" collided with the British merchant SS "Hester" off Newhaven. "Kempenfelt" was under repair at Devonport Dockyard until 7 November. In the meantime the transfer was approved in October, and "Kempenfelt" was formally transferred on 19 October, being renamed HMCS "Assiniboine".

As HMCS "Assiniboine"

HMCS "Assiniboine" spent most of her wartime career with the Canadians escorting convoys across the Atlantic. She survived the war, but was considered obsolete by its end, and was sold for breaking up. Whilst on tow to the breakers, she ran aground. Attempts to get her off failed, and she was left to rust until eventually being broken up in situ in 1952.

References

*Colledge
* [http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-10DD-16C-Kempenfelt1AssiniboineRCN.htm HMS Kempenfelt's career]
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/6206.html HMS Kempenfelt at Uboat.net]