Q and R-class destroyer explained

The Q and R class was a class of sixteen War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered for the British Royal Navy in 1940 as the 3rd and 4th Emergency Flotilla. They served as convoy escorts during World War II. Three Q-class ships were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy upon completion, with two further ships being handed over in 1945. Roebuck had the dubious honour of being launched prematurely by an air raid at Scotts shipyard in Greenock, her partially complete hulk lying submerged in the dockyard for nine months before it was salvaged and completed.

Design

The Q and R class were repeats of the preceding, but reverted to the larger J-, K- and N-class hull to allow for the inevitable growth in topweight. As they had fewer main guns than the J, K and Ns, some magazine space was replaced by fuel bunkers, allowing some 4675nmi to be made at 20kn, rather than the 3700nmi of their predecessors. Like the O and Ps, they were armed with what weapons were available: 4.7adj=onNaNadj=on guns on single mountings that allowed only 40° elevation, which do not compare favourably on paper with many contemporaries. These ships used the Fuze Keeping Clock HA Fire Control Computer.^[1]

In the Q class, 'Y' gun could be removed, allowing additional depth charges and projectors, or minesweeps, to be carried.

The R class were repeats of the Qs, except that the officers' accommodation was moved from its traditional location right aft to the more accessible location amidships. This facilitated the change in watchkeepers in inclement weather; the main deck of a destroyer would often be entirely awash in heavy seas, and catwalks were not fitted to connect fore and aft until the V class ordered in 1941.

In surviving ships, the single 20 mm Oerlikon guns in the bridge wings were later replaced by hydraulically operated Mark V twin mountings. Rotherham, Raider and Rocket later had the Oerlikons and searchlight amidships replaced by four single QF 40 mm Bofors. The searchlight was later reinstated at the cost of depth charge stowage. Raider only had an additional pair of twin Mark V Oerlikon mounts added on the after shelter deck. Radar Type 290 was replaced by Type 291, and later by Type 293 in some ships. The centimetric wavelength Type 272 set was added on a platform between the torpedo tubes in Rotherham, Racehorse, Rapid, Raider and Roebuck, or at the foremast truck in other ships. Racehorse, Raider, Rapid, Redoubt and Relentless had Huff-Duff (High-frequency Direction-finder) added on a lattice mainmast.

Ships

Q class

Construction data

Name	Pennant number	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
	G70	Swan Hunter	6 November 1940	16 January 1942	15 September 1942	To Royal Australian Navy as 1945, later converted to Type 15 frigate, sold for scrapping 1975
	G11/G67	Hawthorn Leslie	24 September 1940	28 February 1942	26 November 1942	To Australia as 1945, later converted to Type 15 frigate, sold for scrapping 1962
	G45		30 September 1940	1 June 1942	7 January 1943	Mined off Bari 15 November 1943, foundered under tow en route for Taranto 18 June 1944
	G62	Swan Hunter	10 October 1940	6 October 1941	7 September 1942	To Australia as 1942, sold for scrapping 1958
	G78	J. Samuel White	25 September 1940	5 November 1941	15 April 1942	Torpedoed and sunk by Italian aircraft off Galita Island 2 December 1942
	G81		14 October 1940	31 January 1942	6 July 1942	Later converted to Type 15 frigate To Australia as, sold for scrapping 1972
	G92		6 February 1941	11 April 1942	14 September 1942	Later converted to Type 15 frigate To Australia as, sold for scrapping 1972
	G09	Hawthorn Leslie	19 August 1940	29 November 1941	22 October 1942	To Royal Netherlands Navy as 1945, sold for scrapping 1957

R class

Construction data

Name	Pennant number	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
	H09	John Brown	10 April 1941	21 March 1942	August 1942	To Indian Navy as Rajput 1949; scrapped 1976
	H11		25 June 1941	1 June 1942	30 October 1942	Sold for scrapping 1949
	H15	Cammel Laird	16 April 1941	1 April 1942	16 November 1942	To India as Rana 1949
	H32		16 June 1941	16 July 1942	20 February 1943	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1953, expended as target 3 September 1981
	H41	John Brown	19 June 1941	2 May 1942	1 October 1942	To India as Ranjit 1949
	H85		20 June 1941	15 July 1942	30 November 1942	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1951, sold for scrapping 1971
	H92	Scotts	14 March 1941	28 October 1942	4 August 1943	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1951, sold for scrapping 1967
	H95		19 June 1941	10 December 1942	10 June 1943	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1953, sold for scrapping 1968

See also

• Type 15 frigate – most surviving Q and R-class ships were given this conversion post-war.

References

• Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981, Maurice Cocker, Ian Allan,
• Book: English, John. Obdurate to Daring: British Fleet Destroyers 1941–45. World Ship Society. Windsor, UK. 2001. 978-0-9560769-0-8.
• Book: Friedman, Norman. British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland. 2006. 1-86176-137-6. Norman Friedman.
• Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press,
• Warships of Australia, Ross Gillett, Illustrations Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977,
• Book: Lenton, H. T.. Henry Trevor Lenton. British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland. 1998. 1-55750-048-7.
• Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945, Leo Marriott, Ian Allan,
• Book: Raven, Alan. Roberts. John . War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. Bivouac Books. London. 1978. 0-85680-010-4. amp.
• Book: Rohwer, Jürgen. Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two. Naval Institute Press. Annapolis, Maryland. 2005. Third Revised. 1-59114-119-2. Jürgen Rohwer.
• Book: Whitley, M. J.. Destroyers of World War 2. Naval Institute Press. 1988. 0-87021-326-1. Annapolis, Maryland. Michael J. Whitley.

Notes and References

1. Destroyer Weapons of WW2, Hodges/Friedman,