拍品專文
The destroyer leader H.M.S. Kelly, 1,695 tons, remains one of the most well known warships of the Second World War, as much for the fact that she was sunk off Crete (on 23 May 1941) during the desperate battle to prevent the island falling into German hands, as for the exploits of her charismatic commander Lord Louis Mountbatten.
Launched from Hawthorn Leslie's yard on 25 October 1938, she was handed over to her new captain on 23 August 1939 just days before War was declared. Her wartime service was colourful to say the least and prior to being sunk by German aircraft in 1941, she had already been mined in the autumn of 1939 as well as torpedoed in May 1940, both of which she survived after extensive repairs.
One of the main reasons for her seemingly legendary reputation is probably due to the fact that her entire career was immortalised in Noel Coward's film "In Which We Serve"; Coward himself portrayed Mountbatten whilst his officers and crew were played by a host of familiar British character actors without which no wartime epic would have been complete.
Launched from Hawthorn Leslie's yard on 25 October 1938, she was handed over to her new captain on 23 August 1939 just days before War was declared. Her wartime service was colourful to say the least and prior to being sunk by German aircraft in 1941, she had already been mined in the autumn of 1939 as well as torpedoed in May 1940, both of which she survived after extensive repairs.
One of the main reasons for her seemingly legendary reputation is probably due to the fact that her entire career was immortalised in Noel Coward's film "In Which We Serve"; Coward himself portrayed Mountbatten whilst his officers and crew were played by a host of familiar British character actors without which no wartime epic would have been complete.