Q and R-class destroyer

HNLMS Banckert on 20 September 1948
Class overview
Operators
Preceded byO and P class
Succeeded byS and T class
SubclassesQ, R
Completed16
Lost2 (+1 expended)
Retired13
General characteristics Q class[1]
TypeDestroyer
Displacement
  • 1,692 long tons (1,719 t)
  • 2,411 long tons (2,450 t) full load
Length358.25 ft (109.2 m) o/a
Beam35.75 ft (10.9 m)
Draught9.5 ft (2.9 m)
Propulsion2 × Admiralty three-drum boilers, Parsons geared steam turbines, 40,000 shp (30,000 kW) on 2 shafts
Speed36 kn (67 km/h)
Range4,675 nmi (8,658 km) at 20 knots (37 km/h)
Complement176 (225 as flotilla leader)
Sensors and
processing systems
  • Radar Type 290 air warning
  • Radar Type 285 ranging & bearing
Armament
General characteristics (R class)
Displacement
  • 1,705 long tons (1,732 t)
  • 2,425 long tons (2,464 t) full load
Complement176 (237 in leader)
Armament4 × throwers & 2 × racks, 70 depth charges
NotesOther characteristics as per Q class

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.[1]

  1. ^ a b British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H. T. Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7