The ships carried a maximum of 484 long tons (492 t) of fuel oil that gave them a range of 5,500 nautical miles (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph).

[4][5] After working up the ship's crew and a period of defect rectification at the Barclay Curle shipyard on the Clyde, Kipling joined the 5th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet on 4 February 1940.

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.

[9] The British assessment concluded instead that Kipling was hit by near-misses from 320 mm shells fired by the battleships Andrea Doria and Giulio Cesare.