HMS "Kipling", named after the author and poet Rudyard Kipling, was laid down by Yarrow, Scotstoun on 20 October 1937, launched on 19 January 1939, by Kipling's daughter, and commissioned on 12 December 1939. On 11 October 1940, "Kipling", along with another six destroyers, escorted the battleship HMS "Renown" to bombard the French port of Cherbourg . At dawn on the 23rd of 1941 HMS Kelly and HMS Kashmir were retiring at full speed round the west of Crete. After surviving two heavy air attacks they were overtaken at 7.55 a.m. by a formation of twenty-four dive-bombers. Both ships were quickly sunk, with a loss of 210 lives. Fortunately the destroyer Kipling was near by, and, despite continuous bombing, rescued from the sea 279 officers and men, including Lord Louis Mountbatten, while she herself remained unscathed. Next morning, while still fifty miles away from Alexandria, and crowded from stem to stern with men, she ran completely out of fuel, but was safely met and towed in. On 17 December 1941, she was lightly damaged by splinters from a 203 mm round from the Italian cruiser "Gorizia" during the First Battle of Sirte. The British assessment concluded instead that "Kipling" was hit by near-misses from 305 mm shells fired by the battleships "Andrea Doria" and "Giulio Cesare". Her wireless aerials were knocked down, her structure, hull and attached boats holed. One crewmember was killed in action. On 28 December 1941 "Kipling" sank the German submarine . "Kipling" was attacked by German Ju 88 bombers of Lehrgeschwader 1 north-west of Mersa Matruh in Egypt on 11 May 1942 and sunk by Joachim Helbig. 29 of her crew were killed and 221 men were rescued.