HMAS Quickmatch 1942

Date: 1942 to 1972
Location: Australia
Surnames/tags: Military_and_War Ship_Tree Destroyers

See the category : profiles of those who served in Quickmatch

HMAS Ships

HMAS Quickmatch (G92/D21/D292/F04) was a Q-class destroyer operated by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). Although commissioned into the RAN in 1942, the ship was initially the property of the Royal Navy. Quickmatch served with both the British Eastern Fleet and British Pacific Fleet during World War II. In the 1950s, the destroyer was converted into an anti-submarine frigate. In 1957, Quickmatch operated in support of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. The ship remained in service until 1963, and after use as an accommodation ship, was sold for scrap in 1972

Namesake: The quick match, a fast burning match used for lighting cannon

Builder: J. Samuel White and Company

Laid down: 6 February 1941

Launched: 11 April 1942

Commissioned: 14 September 1942

Decommissioned: 15 May 1950

Recommissioned: 23 September 1955

Decommissioned: 26 April 1963

Motto: "Swift to Strike"

HMAS Quickmatch was one of eight Q Class destroyers built for the Royal Navy, although Quickmatch was commissioned in the Royal Australian Navy at Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 14 September 1942 under the command of LCDR Rodney Rhoades 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.

On 19 April 1944 HMA Ships NAPIER, NEPAL, NIZAM, QUICKMATCH, and QUIBERON, (destroyers), operated as part of the British Pacific Fleet in the attack on Sabang, (Operation Cockpit), by carrier-borne aircraft.

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. During 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 in the New Hebrides she commenced her annual refit at Sydney (November to December 1944). Following the refit Quickmatch served mainly in Australian waters, with a visit to New Zealand, until March 1945.

On 20 March 1945 the British Pacific Fleet arrived at Ulithi to join the US Fifth Fleet for Operation Iceberg, the assault on Okinawa. HMAS QUICKMATCH and QUIBERON, (destroyers), were serving with the 4th Destroyer Flotilla in the Fleet. She was 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.

On 17 July 1945 HMA Ships QUIBERON and QUICKMATCH, (destroyers), with HM Ships FORMIDABLE, NEWFOUNDLAND, BLACK PRINCE, BARFLEUR, GRENVILLE, TROUGHBRIDGE, and UNDINE, bombarded the Japanese coast north of Tokyo. QUIBERON and QUICKMATCH were the only RAN ships to fire on the Japanese home islands.

When hostilities ceased on 15 August 1945, Quickmatch was en route to Manus 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 seagoing service in Australian waters, interspersed with several tours of duty in Japanese and Korean waters. In July 1948 she returned to Sydney following three months as the 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 where work commenced on her conversion to a modern fast anti-submarine frigate. The conversion was completed in 1955 and she recommissioned on 23 September 1955 under the command of LCDR Duncan H. Stevens RAN, as a unit of the 1st Frigate Squadron. When completed by the conversion of three sister ships from destroyers to frigates, the Squadron comprised HMA Ships Quadrant, Queenborough, Quiberon and Quickmatch. ^[1]

Wiki

Sources

1. ↑ HMAS Quickmatch