Q and R-class destroyer

For another use, see R-class destroyer (1916).

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.

HNLMS Banckert on 20 September 1948
Class overview
Operators	Royal Navy Royal Australian Navy Royal Netherlands Navy Indian Navy
Preceded by	O and P class
Succeeded by	S and T class
Subclasses	Q, R
Completed	16
Lost	2 (+1 expended)
Retired	13
General characteristics Q class
Type	Destroyer
Displacement	1,692 long tons (1,719 t) 2,411 long tons (2,450 t) full load
Length	358.25 ft (109.2 m) o/a
Beam	35.75 ft (10.9 m)
Draught	9.5 ft (2.9 m)
Propulsion	2 × Admiralty three-drum boilers, Parsons geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) on 2 shafts
Speed	36 kn (67 km/h)
Range	4,675 nmi (8,658 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement	176 (225 as flotilla leader)
Sensors and processing systems	Radar Type 290 air warning Radar Type 285 ranging & bearing
Armament	4 × QF 4.7 in (120 mm) Mk.IX guns, single mounts CP Mk.XVIII 4 × QF 2 pdr Mk.VIII (40 mm L/39), quad mount Mk.VII 6 × QF 20 mm Oerlikon, single mount P Mk.III 8 (2×4) tubes for 21 in (533 mm) torpedoes Mk.IX up to 3 × throwers & 3 × racks, to 45 depth charges
General characteristics (R class)
Displacement	1,705 long tons (1,732 t) 2,425 long tons (2,464 t) full load
Complement	176 (237 in leader)
Armament	4 × throwers & 2 × racks, 70 depth charges
Notes	Other characteristics as per Q class

Design

The Q and R class were repeats of the preceding O and P class, 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 4,675 nautical miles (8,658 km) to be made at 20 knots (37 km/h), rather than the 3,700 nmi (6,900 km) of their predecessors. Like the O and Ps, they were armed with what weapons were available: 4.7-inch (119 mm) 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.

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
Queenborough	G70	Swan Hunter	6 November 1940	16 January 1942	15 September 1942	To Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Queenborough 1945, later converted to Type 15 frigate, sold for scrapping 1975
Quadrant	G11/G67	Hawthorn Leslie	24 September 1940	28 February 1942	26 November 1942	To Australia as HMAS Quadrant 1945, later converted to Type 15 frigate, sold for scrapping 1962
Quail	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
Quality	G62	Swan Hunter	10 October 1940	6 October 1941	7 September 1942	To Australia as HMAS Quality 1942, sold for scrapping 1958
Quentin	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
Quiberon	G81		14 October 1940	31 January 1942	6 July 1942	Later converted to Type 15 frigate To Australia as HMAS Quiberon (G81), sold for scrapping 1972
Quickmatch	G92		6 February 1941	11 April 1942	14 September 1942	Later converted to Type 15 frigate To Australia as HMAS Quickmatch (G92), sold for scrapping 1972
Quilliam	G09	Hawthorn Leslie	19 August 1940	29 November 1941	22 October 1942	To Royal Netherlands Navy as HNLMS Banckert 1945, sold for scrapping 1957

R class

Construction data

Name	Pennant number	Builder	Laid down	Launched	Commissioned	Fate
Rotherham	H09	John Brown	10 April 1941	21 March 1942	August 1942	To Indian Navy as Rajput 1949; scrapped 1976
Racehorse	H11		25 June 1941	1 June 1942	30 October 1942	Sold for scrapping 1949
Raider	H15	Cammel Laird	16 April 1941	1 April 1942	16 November 1942	To India as Rana 1949
Rapid	H32		16 June 1941	16 July 1942	20 February 1943	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1953, expended as target 3 September 1981
Redoubt	H41	John Brown	19 June 1941	2 May 1942	1 October 1942	To India as Ranjit 1949
Relentless	H85		20 June 1941	15 July 1942	30 November 1942	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1951, sold for scrapping 1971
Rocket	H92	Scotts	14 March 1941	28 October 1942	4 August 1943	Converted to Type 15 frigate 1951, sold for scrapping 1967
Roebuck	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, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
• English, John (2001). Obdurate to Daring: British Fleet Destroyers 1941–45. Windsor, UK: World Ship Society. ISBN 978-0-9560769-0-8.
• Friedman, Norman (2006). British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-86176-137-6.
• Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8
• Warships of Australia, Ross Gillett, Illustrations Colin Graham, Rigby Limited, 1977, ISBN 0-7270-0472-7
• Lenton, H. T. (1998). British & Empire Warships of the Second World War. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-55750-048-7.
• Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945, Leo Marriott, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1817-0
• Raven, Alan & Roberts, John (1978). War Built Destroyers O to Z Classes. London: Bivouac Books. ISBN 0-85680-010-4.
• Rohwer, Jürgen (2005). Chronology of the War at Sea 1939–1945: The Naval History of World War Two (Third Revised ed.). Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 1-59114-119-2.
• Whitley, M. J. (1988). Destroyers of World War 2. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-326-1.