HMS Kenilworth Castle

Design and description

The Castle-class corvette was a stretched version of the preceding , enlarged to improve seakeeping and to accommodate modern weapons. The ships displaced 1010 LT at standard load and 1510 LT at deep load. The ships had an overall length of 252 ft, a beam of 36 ft The engine developed a total of 2880 ihp and gave a speed of 16.5 kn. The Castles carried enough fuel oil to give them a range of 6500 nmi at 15 kn. The ships' complement was 99 officers and ratings.

The Castle-class ships were equipped with a single QF 4 in Mk XVI dual-purpose gun forward, but their primary weapon was their single three-barrel Squid anti-submarine mortar. This was backed up by one depth charge rail and two throwers for 15 depth charges. The ships were fitted with two twin and a pair of single mounts for 20 mm Oerlikon AA guns. Provision was made for a further four single mounts if needed. They were equipped with Type 145Q and Type 147B ASDIC sets to detect submarines by reflections from sound waves beamed into the water. A Type 272 search radar and a HF/DF radio direction finder rounded out the Castles' sensor suite.

Construction and career

Kenilworth Castle was ordered on 19 December 1942 and was laid down by Smiths Dock Company at their shipyard in South Bank, North Yorkshire, on 7 May 1943. The ship was launched on 17 August and completed on 22 November. After several weeks of training in Western Approaches Command's Anti-Submarine Training School at Tobermory, Mull, she joined Escort Group B7 escorting convoys to Canada in January 1944. On 5 March she was detached from Escort Group B7 to reinforce Escort Group C2 which was prosecuting a U-boat contact. Kenilworth Castle attacked with her Squid three times before her ASDIC broke down; subsequent attacks by the Canadian ships eventually forced the U-boat to surface the following day. This was the first time that a Castle-class corvette had been involved in the sinking of a U-boat.

The ship was transferred to Escort Group B4 on the Gibraltar-UK run in May; the group was reorganized and redesignated as the 30th Escort Group on 29 August with the mission to patrol British waters and reinforce other escort groups as needed. On 10 November was detected by radar and was then acquired by Kenilworth Castles sister 's ASDIC on the night of 11 November. The group pinned down the submarine for three days with Kenilworth Castle contributing a single Squid attack; the entire group was credited with sinking U-1200. The ship remained with the group past Germany's surrender on 8 May; her last convoy arrived in Derry on 2 June 1945. Beginning in July she was assigned the air-sea rescue mission in Freetown and Dakar through October.

Kenilworth Castle was assigned to the training squadron in Portland Harbour in 1946 and was reduced to reserve in 1948. She was sold for scrap to E. Rees in 1959 and arrived at Llanelli on 20 June.

References

Bibliography

References

1. and a deep [[draft (hull). draught]] of {{convert. 13. ft. 9. in. m. 1. They were powered by a four-cylinder [[Marine steam engine#Triple or multiple expansion. triple-expansion steam engine]] driving one [[propeller shaft]] using steam provided by two [[Admiralty three-drum boiler]]s.Goodwin, p. 2
2. Lenton, p. 297
3. Campbell, p. 63; Lenton, p. 297
4. Goodwin, p. 3
5. Goodwin, pp. 185–187, 191
6. Goodwin, pp. 185, 188–190, 192
7. Goodwin, p. 190
8. Colledge, Warlow & Bush, p. 228