USS Herndon (DD 198) was decommissioned and turned over to Great Britain under the lend lease program at Halifax, Nova Scotia on 9 September 1940. As HMS Churchill (I 45), she served as leader of the first Town-class flotilla in transatlantic convoys and patrol duty off the western approaches to the British Isles. High points in her career in the Royal Navy include participation in the search for Bismarck after the German battleship had sunk HMS Hood (51), and a visit by her namesake, the redoubtable Prime Minister, on his way home from the momentous Atlantic Conference with President Roosevelt in August 1941. HMS Churchill (I 45) also served as an escort for the pre- and post-invasion buildup for Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. Transferred to the Russian Navy 16 July 1944, the destroyer was renamed Dejatelnyj (Active) and was probably sunk by an U-boat on 16 January 1945 about 40 miles east of Cape Tereberski while escorting the convoy KB-1 over the treacherous route from Kola Inlet to the White Sea.

Commanding Officers:
Cdr. Gerald R. Cousins, DSC, RN (retired)
9 September 1940 -

Cdr. Peter John Fitzgerald, RN (retired)
3 March 1942 – 27 February 1943

Cdr. Godfrey Noel Brewer, RN
27 February 1943 – ???

???

Lt. Anthony Charles Denniss Leach, RN
June 1943 - ???

T/Lt. J.H. Millar, RNVR
??? - 16 July 1944