Q Class, British Destroyers

Australian War Memorial. Via Wikipedia Commons

Specifications:

The Quilliams were completed in 1942-1943 as the first of the War Emergency Destroyers or "Cubs". In order to speed production, they were based as much as possible on existing designs, having hulls very similar to the "J" class with a number of changes in armament. The twin gun turrets were replaced with single gun turrets and the torpedo armament was increased. One magazine was converted to a fuel bunker to improve endurance. 

The ships were designed to take three easily interchanged sets of armament. Configuration 'A' is that shown above. Configuration 'B' was a maximum antisubmarine warfare configuration, which swapped one 4" gun for four additional depth charge throwers and a loadout of 120 depth charges. Configuration 'C' was a minesweeper version which also sacrificed the fourth 4" gun and reduced the depth charge loadout to 45 depth charges in return for TSDS minesweeping gear.

Their completion was delayed because of air raid damage to the yards. A second group of identical design, the "R" class, had construction suspended because of the fall of France, which prompted the Admiralty to suspend all construction that could not be completed by the end of 1940 until the crisis had passed. Construction resumed after the British victory in the Battle of Britain reduced the threat of German invasion.

A number of units were manned by the Royal Australian Navy, although they operated in the war against Germany until the beginning of 1944 and remained under Royal Navy operational control until the end of the war.

Units in the Pacific:

References

Friedman (2006)

Whitley (1988)

Worth (2001)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2010, 2013 by Kent G. Budge. Index

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