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Raverdave -> Re: RAN & RNZN Ships (11/12/2002 12:27:13 PM)
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by tanjman
[B]Does any one know where the 5 Queensborough class destroyers served? My source (Jane's Fighting Ships of WWII) shows them all being commissioned by Nov 42.
Does any one know of a site like the Hyperwar: USN Ships, 1940-45 site for the RAN & RNZN? [/B][/QUOTE]
Queensborough Class? These ships, were known in the RAN as "Q" ships. Of the eight that were produced, only two served in the RAN during WW2, these being the HMAS Quiberon and HMAS Quickmatch, both being commissioned in 1942. In 1945, between october and November another three ships of this class were transfered to the RAN HMAS Quadrant, HMAS Quality and HMAS Queenborough.
A quick search shows that HMAS Quiberon is credited with sinking U411 in 1942.......that puts her in either the Med or the convoy runs to the US (just quessing here guys).
Ahhh...............I just found the following:-
HMAS QUIBERON
Technical Details
Type: Anti-Submarine Frigate (ex-Destroyer)
Displacement: 1705 tons (standard) (as Destroyer) 2020 tons (standard) (as Frigate)
Length: 358 feet 9 inches
Beam: 35 feet 9 inches
Draught: 9 feet 6 inches
Complement: 220
Propulsion: Parsons geared turbines, 2 shafts, 40,000 SHP
Laid Down: 14 October 1940
Launched: 31 January 1942 Mrs Tillard, wife of Rear Admiral S.D. Tillard, Flag Officer in Charge, Southampton
Armament (Main):
As Destroyer
4x4.7 inch guns
4x2 pounder guns
2x40 mm guns
8x21 inch torpedo tubes
As Frigate
2x4 inch guns (twin-mount)
2x40 mm Bofors AA
2 triple-barrel depth charge mortars
Builders: J. Samuel White & Co. Ltd, Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK
Commissioned: 6 July 1942 (as Destroyer)
18 December 1957 (as Frigate)
Speed: 31 knots
Following commissioning at Cowes, Isle of Wight, QUIBERON manned by an Australian crew proceeded to Scapa Flow. Until late August 1942 she was engaged in working up exercises in northern Scottish waters and was then detailed to North Atlantic convoy escort duty. One of her first tasks was to form part of the escort of a twenty-one ship troop convoy bound for Capetown but was detached from this duty to search for a suspected U-Boat supply ship in the Atlantic. After a fruitless cruise over a wide area QUIBERON reached Freetown (Africa) on 27 September, proceeded thence to Gibraltar and back to British home waters having steamed 12,000 miles and spent only three out of forty-two days in harbour.
In October 1942 she formed a unit of the large British naval forces assigned to support the Allied landings in North Africa (Operation 'Torch'). During this period of her service which took her into the Mediterranean for the first time QUIBERON experienced her first contact with the enemy when she became the frequent target of aircraft. On 28 November 1942 while operating off the Tunisian coast north west of Bone in company of HMS QUENTIN she attacked and destroyed the Italian submarine DESSIE.
On 1 December 1942 QUIBERON formed a unit of a force of three cruisers and three destroyers despatched from Bone (Tunisia) to intercept an enemy convoy reported bound from Sicily to Tunis. Contact was made in the early hours of 2 December and all four ships of the convoy and the escorting Italian destroyer LUPO were sunk, but HMS QUENTIN (QUIBERON's sister ship) was sunk by an aircraft torpedo on the way back to Bone and at dawn QUIBERON, while under heavy air attack, was called upon to rescue her complement.
QUIBERON operated in North African waters on convoy and fleet escort duties for the remainder of December 1942 and throughout January 1943. On 21 December, she took off survivors from the burning liner STRATHALLAN which had been torpedoed off the Algerian coast by a U-Boat.
At the end of January 1943, QUIBERON left the Mediterranean as a unit of the escort of a convoy bound from England to Capetown. She arrived at Durban on 27 February and from there proceeded to Australia arriving Fremantle on 29 March, having steamed 51,000 miles on war service.
After refitting at Melbourne, she returned to the Indian Ocean and at Kilindini (Kenya) in June 1943 joined the British Eastern Fleet. She spent the remainder of 1943 almost constantly at sea escorting Indian Ocean convoys.
In 1944, QUIBERON continued serving as an escort destroyer of the Eastern Fleet protecting convoys proceeding mainly between India and Aden. In March 1944, British Indian Ocean naval forces were reinforced, and were able to take the offensive against Japanese held territory. QUIBERON took part in the carrier air strikes against Sabang (April 1944) and Sourabaya (May 1944) before returning to Australia for another refit at Melbourne.
QUIBERON rejoined the Eastern Fleet at Trincomalee (Ceylon) on 1 August 1944 and resumed escort duty in the Indian Ocean. In October 1944 as a unit of the Fleet, she took part in a series of bombardments of the Japanese held Nicobar Islands. In mid December she detached from the Eastern Fleet and returned to Australia where for the next few weeks she operated as an escort and anti-submarine vessel on the Australia Station.
In March 1945 QUIBERON proceeded to Manus, the United States base in the Admiralty Islands, as a unit of the British Pacific Fleet. From Manus she proceeded north to the operational area and was thereafter until the end of hostilities actively engaged in the closing phases of the war at sea against Japan. She took part in operations in support of the American seizure of Okinawa and subsequent attacks on the Japanese homeland. When the war ended in August, she had steamed 236,000 miles of war service.
Peace did not bring immediate respite for QUIBERON. She was present at the re-occupation of Shanghai, and then served in the East Indies until February 1946, troop carrying, retrieving prisoners of war and assisting in the re-establishment of Dutch control in the area.
In March 1946, following a short refit at Sydney, she sailed for Japan to begin the first of three periods of occupation duty. She reached Sydney at the end of her third period of Far East service (March - July 1948) on 22 July 1948 and was there immobilised having steamed 80,000 miles in the post war years and a total of 316,772 miles since commissioning. In six years of seagoing service QUIBERON had been under way 20,452 hours 52 minutes or almost two and a half years. She paid off on 15 May 1950.
In November 1950 the task of converting QUIBERON to a modern anti-submarine frigate was commenced at Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney. Later the ship was transferred to the Naval Dockyard at Garden Island, Sydney, where the conversion was completed in December 1957. She recommissioned on 18 December 1957.
QUIBERON during her six and a half years commission (December 1957 - June 1964) spent several periods of duty on Far East service as a unit of the British Strategic Reserve based on Singapore and from time to time operated as a unit of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation forces on periodical exercises in Far East waters. Otherwise she operated as a unit of the Australian Fleet (1st Frigate Squadron) on the Australia Station. Her service career ended when she paid off to Reserve on 26 June 1964.
On 15 February 1972 QUIBERON was sold for breaking up to Fujita Salvage Company Limited of Osaka, Japan, for $68,260.00.
On 10 April 1972 the Japanese tug SUMI MARU No 38 left Sydney for Japan with QUIBERON and another former RAN vessel, TOBRUK, in tow.
HMAS QUICKMATCH
Technical Details
Type: Anti-Submarine Frigate (ex-Destroyer)
Displacement: 1705 tons (standard) (as Destroyer) 2020 tons (standard) (as Frigate)
Length: 358 feet 9 inches
Beam: 35 feet 9 inches
Draught: 9 feet 6 inches
Propusion: Parsons geared turbines, 2 shafts, 40,000 SHP
Laid Down: 6 February, 1941
Launched: 11 April, 1942 (Mrs Shearman)
Armament: As Destroyer
4x4 .7 inch guns
4x2 pounder guns
8x21 inch torpedo tubes
As Frigate
2x4 inch guns (twin-mount)
2x40 mm Bofors AA
2 triple-barrel depth charge mortars
Builders: J. Samuel White & Co Ltd. Cowes, Isle of Wight, UK
Complement: 220
Speed: 31 knots
HMAS QUICKMATCH commissioned at Cowes, Isle of Wight on 14 September, 1942 under the command of Lieutenant-Commander Rodney Rhodes, DSC, RAN.
After trials the ship commenced convoy escort duty on 5 October, 1942.
In November, 1942 she proceeded to the South Atlantic station for further convoy escort duty. En route on 1 December, she intercepted the Italian blockade runner CORTELAZZO. Following four months convoy duty on the South Atlantic station QUICKMATCH transferred to the Indian Ocean for similar duty, although she was detached to the South Atlantic station during June, July and August, 1943.
In May, 1944 QUICKMATCH was included in the main force of the British Eastern Fleet based on Ceylon which carried out a successful carrier borne air attack on the Japanese base at Sourabaya on 17 May. This action was followed on 21 June by a similar assault from the air on Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. In these operations QUICKMATCH was a unit of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, Eastern Fleet. On 25 July 1944 QUICKMATCH,
as part of an inshore force, entered Sabang Harbour (Sumatra) and carried out a close-range bombardment
of Japanese installations.
In October, 1944 QUICKMATCH arrived in Australian waters for the first time. After visiting Espiritu Santo (New Hebrides) she commenced her annual refit at Sydney (November-December 1944). Following the refit QUICKMATCH served mainly in Australian waters, with a visit to New Zealand, until March, 1945. She then proceeded to the Far East as a unit of the British Pacific Fleet as one of the ships screening the Royal Navy carriers whose task it was to neutralise Japanese air fields in support of the United States invasion in Okinawa ('Operation Iceberg'). In July, again screening carriers of the British Pacific Fleet, she took part in further assaults on the Japanese home islands. When hostilities ceased on 15 August, 1945 QUICKMATCH was en route to Manus (Admiralty Islands) after operating in support of attacks on the main Japanese island of Honshu. She had steamed some 224,000 miles on war service.
In the early post-war years QUICKMATCH remained in sea-going service on the Australian station interspersed with several tours of duty in Japanese and Korean waters. In July, 1948 she returned to Sydney following three months as Australian Squadron representative in Japan and was placed in immobilised commission. She paid off on 15 May, 1950.
On 28 March 1951 QUICKMATCH was towed by the tug HMAS RESERVE to Williamstown Naval Dockyard (Vic) where the work of converting her to a modern anti-submarine frigate was commenced. Conversion was completed in 1955 and she re-commissioned on 23 September, 1955 under
the command of Lieutenant Commander Duncan H. Stevens, RAN. She had five tours of duty in Far East waters totalling almost two years of foreign service as a unit of the Commonwealth strategic Reserve and including several periods exercising with the forces of the South East Asia Treaty Organisation. The remainder of her last commission was spent on the Australia station, and in South West Pacific and New Zealand waters.
When QUICKMATCH paid off to Reserve at Williamstown on 26 April, 1963 she had steamed 246,822 miles. After paying off she served as an Accommodation Ship at Williamstown.
On 15 February, 1972 QUICKMATCH was sold for scrap to Fujita Salvage Company Limited of Osaka, Japan. On 6 July, 1972 the Japanese tug SUMI MARU left Melbourne for Japan with QUICKMATCH and another former RAN vessel, GASCOYNE, in tow.
For more info on RAN ships during WW2 goto the following site:-
http://www.navy.gov.au/history/navalhistory.htm
:)
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