- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- Letter to the Editor
- Tags
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- RAN Ships
- HMAS Quickmatch
- Publication
- March 1997 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
The September 1996 issue of the `Navy Review’ proudly displays the glass windows depicting the `V’ & `W’, `N’, and Tribal Class destroyers, and rightly so.
But, as a past crewman of ‘Quickmatch‘ it is again disappointing that the `Q’ Class seem to have scarcely existed, and are frequently ignored.
I suggest that had the RN had 8 `N’ Class available, we would not have manned any `Q’s.
The 2 `Q’ Class of the RAN served long and well during the war years and ‘Quickmatch‘ saw out the entire British Fleet operations which I believe cannot be claimed by any other destroyer.
One grows weary of the glamour ships – The Tribals, and the frequent references to the ‘N’s.
M. Hayles (F5217)
(Ed: Mr. Hayles has been informed that the Editors are unaware of any `Q’ Class memorial windows. Further, that a combined destroyer memorial window is proposed for the Chapel of Remembrance beneath the Naval Chapel, Garden Island, in which the ‘Q”s will take their rightful place alongside the other RAN destroyers of WWII. The RN had eight `N’ Class destroyers available, but we believe the RAN could only muster crews for five. The other three were loaned to the Polish Navy (‘PIORIN’) and the Dutch (‘TJERK HIDDES’ and `VAN GALEN’).