The Battle-class destroyers, featuring enhanced AA defenses, were designed drawing on lessons learned from wartime and ordered by the Admiralty between 1942 and 1943. The ships ordered in 1943 differed from their earlier counterparts by having more powerful main battery artillery, and among them was destroyer HMS Somme, named after one of the biggest battles of World War I. However, she was never commissioned and remained unclaimed due to the end of hostilities in 1945. She was eventually demolished on her stocks.