Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Silhouette of a Fletcher-class destroyer, of the same type as USS Kimberly.

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Kimberly (DD-521), 1943-1967

USS Kimberly, a 2050-ton Fletcher class destroyer built at Staten Island, New York, was commissioned in May 1943. She went to the Pacific in September 1943, making her combat debut that November as an escort for other warships during the Gilbert's invasion. Kimberly was sent to the north Pacific in January 1944, where she operated until the following September taking part in surface raids and bombardments directed against Japanese shipping and facilities in the vicinity of the Kurile Islands. The destroyer then steamed southwards to join the ongoing campaign in the Philippines. During December 1944 and January 1945 she was part of the fleet that delivered amphibious assaults on Mindoro and Luzon. Among her accomplishments in these operations were the destruction of several enemy aircraft.

In March 1945 Kimberly was assigned to radar picket duty to help protect the invasion of Okinawa. On the 26th of that month she was attacked by two suicide planes, one of which struck the ship aft. Four of Kimberly's crew were killed, and she was damaged badly enough to require a voyage to the U.S. for repairs. When the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, completed this work in late June 1945 the destroyer headed back for the western Pacific war zone, but arrived just as Japan surrendered. Sent back home as an escort for the battleship Missouri, on whose decks the surrender document had been signed, Kimberly arrived at Philadephia, Pennsylvania, in mid-October. She subsequently went to Charleston, South Carolina, where she was formally decommissioned in February 1947.

The Korean War crisis brought Kimberly back into the active fleet. She recommissioned in February 1951 and in mid-year went to the Far East to take part in combat service and other Seventh Fleet operations. After returning to the Atlantic late in 1951, she was employed in routine duties until again decommissioned in January 1954. Kimberly was part of the Atlantic Reserve Fleet until June 1967, when she was transferred to the Republic of China. Renamed An Yang, she served in the ROC Navy until 1999.

USS Kimberly was named in honor of Rear Admiral Lewis A. Kimberly (1830-1902), who commanded the Pacific Station during the later 1880s.

This page features the only view we have related to USS Kimberly (DD-521), and provides information on images that may be available from another institution.


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 99746

USS Kimberly
(DD-521)

Plan view amidships, looking forward, while the ship was at the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, on 26 June 1945.
Note the cap of her forward smokestack, and the antenna for her SC-2 air search radar atop the foremast.

Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

Online Image: 166KB; 605 x 765 pixels

 


In addition to the images presented above, the National Archives appears to hold other views of USS Kimberly (DD-521). The following list features some of these images:

The images listed below are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections.
DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".



  • Photo #: 80-G-68235
    USS Kimberly (DD-521) underway, going astern, in the vicinity of the New York Navy Yard, 5 June 1943. Photographed from an aircraft based at Naval Air Station New York.
    Port broadside (slightly toward the bow) aerial view. Kimberly is painted in an overall dark grey, probably Camouflage Measure 21.

  • Photo #: 80-G-68240
    As above, but port quarter (rather toward the broadside) high aerial view.


  • Note: The Mare Island Navy Yard photograph presented on this page strongly indicates that the Bureau of Ships photo collection (Record Group 19-N in the National Archives' Still Picture Branch) contains other images of Kimberly taken circa late June 1945. As ships were completing overhaul and repair at Mare Island, the Navy Yard's photographer almost always took a series of photographs of the ship, including overall surface views (from directly ahead, off the bow, broadside, off the quarter, and from directly astern), plus closeup photos (like that seen above) from several vantage points above the ship. Interested persons should contact the National Archives' Still Picture Branch for research on such photos of Kimberly.


    Reproductions of these images should be available through the National Archives photographic reproduction system for pictures not held by the Naval Historical Center.

    The images listed in this box are NOT in the Naval Historical Center's collections. DO NOT try to obtain them using the procedures described in our page "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions".


  • If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 20 November 2004