HMS Kingston (F64)

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Career (United Kingdom)
HMS Kingston (F64)
Name:	HMS Kingston (F64)
Builder:	J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes on the Isle of Wight
Laid down:	October 6, 1937
Launched:	January 9, 1939
Commissioned:	September 14, 1939
Fate:	On April 11, 1942 heavily damaged by aircraft in La Valletta harbour at Malta while in dry dock. She rolled over and became a constructive total loss.
Status:	Scrapped at Malta.
General characteristics
Class and type:	K-class
Displacement:	1690 gross register tons (GRT)
Length:	357 ft (109 m)
Propulsion:	Geared turbines, 2 shafts, 40000 HP
Speed:	36 knots
Complement:	183 men
Armament:	6 4.7" guns (3x2) 4 2pdr AA (1x4) 8 .5" MG AA (2x4) 10 21" torpedo tubes (2x5)

HMS Kingston (F64) was a K-class destroyer of the Royal Navy laid down by J. Samuel White and Company at Cowes on the Isle of Wight on October 6, 1937, launched on January 9, 1939 and commissioned on September 14, 1939.

In company with the destroyers Kashmir and Icarus, Kingston attacked the German U-boat U-35 in the North Sea on November 29, 1939, resulting in the loss of the submarine, then rescued 12 crewmen^[1].

Kingston was involved in the evacuation of Greece in April 1941, and Kingston took part in the Second Battle of Sirte, March 22, 1942, where she was hit by a 15" shell fired by the Italian battleship Littorio. Fifteen men of her crew were killed in this incident, which left the destroyer dead in the water, almost broken in two, her whaler torn apart, her antiarcraft guns, searchlight tower and torpedo launchers obliterated by the explosion. With an engine in flames and a flooded boiler, she managed however to recover speed, reaching Malta the next day.

Whilst in dry dock at Malta repairing damage from this encounter, Kingston was attacked by German aircraft on April 11, 1942 and suffered further damage, this time beyond repair. By a tragic coincidence, twelve of the surviving complement (including her commanding officer, Commander Philip Somerville, DSO) were killed when their rock-carved shelter was demolished by a large German aerial bomb on the same day. She was scrapped at Malta. Although she was finished off by air raid, this was one of the rare examples of a Royal Navy warship destroyed or sunk by Italian Fleet forces in WWII.