All of the fourteen destroyers which served with the RAN during World War II were British designs. These were the "V&W" class (five ships), "N" class (5 ships), "Q"class (2 ships) and "Tribal" class (2 ships). The "Tribals" were Australian-built; the others were built in Britain and transferred. Only the "V&W"s were present at the beginning of the war; the others entered service as the RAN expanded. Three "V&W"s and one "N" were war losses.
V&Ws
N Class
Tribals
The "Q's"
HMA Ships Stuart (leader), Vampire, Vendetta, Voyager, Waterhen.
Specifications
Dimensions - Length 312 feet o/a, beam 29.5 feet, draft 11 feet. 1,090 tons (except Stuart, length 332.5 feet o/a, beam 31.75 feet, 1,316 tons). Speed 34 knots at 27,000 hp. Complement - originally 110. Armament - 4 single 4 inch guns (Stuart 5x4.7 inch), 2 triple 21 inch torpedo tubes; 1x2-pounder pom-pom and 2 single 20mm Oerlikon guns. Some captured Italian machine guns were also mounted, at least for a time.
Few ships have brought the RAN as much honour as the five destroyers of this class. The V&Ws were the culmination of the design principles learned during the 1914-18 war. In 1918 they were as big and as heavily armed as the newest of their German opponents, and much stronger, more weatherly and mechanically reliable. It was precisely these qualities which kept them in service throughout the second World War, when other ships their age were rusting in breaker’s yards. Elderly but by no means obsolete at the outbreak of World War II, these elderly destroyers held the ring while newer ships were being acquired. The five Australian V&Ws were incorporated into the Mediterranean Fleet as Destroyer Flotilla 10 under Captain (D) Hector Waller. Because of the shortage of all kinds of ships, they were kept on as fleet destroyers long after they should have been shifted to less demanding tasks. The five "V&W" Class destroyers were affectionately dubbed "the Scrap-iron flotilla" by those who wondered how such elderly ships could still fight. Stuart in particular distinguished herself, sinking an Italian submarine and seeing action against the Italian Fleet in the battles of Calabria (9 July 1940) and Cape Matapan (28th March 1941). 
Waterhen, "the Chook", became famous for her audacious runs in and out of the besieged fortress of Tobruk; she was lost to a dive-bombing attack off Sollum on 29th June 1941. One by one the V&Ws returned to Australian waters where they were moved to escort duties. Vampire was escorting the British aircraft-carrier Hermes when both were sunk by Japanese bombers off Trincomalee on 9th April 1942. Voyager was next to go, running aground in Bentano Bay, Timor, and savaged to death by Japanese bombers on 23rd September 1942. In 1944 the two survivors, Stuart and Vendetta, were relegated to second-line duties. Stuart was given a humdrum but vital job as fast transport of perishable goods. After the war Vendetta was scuttled off Sydney Heads, going to a hero’s grave among other illustrious Australian warships. The names of three of the scrap-iron flotilla (Vampire, Voyager and Vendetta) were retained in their honour in the post-war Australian Navy.
Specifications
Dimensions - 356 feet o/a, beam 35 feet, draft 9 feet. Displacement - 1,760 tons. Performance - 36 knots at 40,000 hp. Complement - 226 (wartime). Armament - 3 twin 4.7 inch guns, 2 quintuple 21 inch torpedo tubes, 1 2-pounder pom pom, 4 20-mm Oerlikon guns, 42 depth charges.
The "N"s were the third of three groups of large destroyers laid down between 1937 and 1939 (the others were the almost identical "J" and "K" classes). They were the first single-funnelled destroyers built by Britain. Their construction marked a return to the concept of heavy torpedo armament in destroyers (which had been forsaken the year before in the slightly larger "Tribals"). 
Seven "N’s were built, five of them serving in the RAN until the end of the hostilities. Together they formed the 5th destroyer flotilla, though some of the five were always on detached duties or in dock for maintenance or repairs. Because of the arrangement with Britain, where Australia would crew these ships but the British would provide maintenance, the entire flotilla served chiefly as an element of the Royal Navy.
Napier’s and Nizams’s service began with a brief stint in the Atlantic before they joined the Mediterranean Fleet. Here the "N"s carried out all the varied duties of a warship in that hazardous theatre - the Tobruk run, escort for convoys or squadrons of warships, shore bombardments and the dreadful ordeal of the evacuation from Crete (May 1941). The entire flotilla was in the Indian Ocean in the beginning of 1942, and, less Nepal, took part in a sweep in March. By June they were back in the Mediterranean, where Nestor was dive-bombed and sunk escorting one of the hard-pressed Malta convoys. September 1942 found the bulk of the flotilla involved in the campaign to secure Madagascar from the Vichy French. At other times that year, units of the flotilla would be found on general duties as far apart as Capetown, Durban and Chittagong.
In January 1944 they began to come back together, joining first the British Far East Fleet and subsequently the British Pacific Fleet. On duties with the latter the "N"s were particularly busy, escorting the fleet and bombarding Japanese shore positions in the final tumultuous six months of the war. Nizam was duty destroyer in Tokyo Bay on the day the Japanese surrender was signed. After the war’s end all four surviving Australian "N"s were returned to the Royal Navy in exchange for the "Q" class destroyers Queenborough, Quadrant and Quality.
HMA Ships Arunta, Warramunga, Bataan.
Specifications (original)
Dimensions - Length 377.5 feet o/a, beam 36.5 feet, draft 9 feet. Displacement 1,870 - 1,970 tons. Performance - 36.5 knots at 34,000 hp. Armament - 4 twin 4.7 inch guns, 1 quadruple 21 inch torpedo tubes, anti-aircraft armament as designed was a quadruple or octuple 2-pounder pom-pom, but actual armament varied as the war progressed.
This was the only class of destroyers built for the RAN in Australian shipyards. The 1935 design stemmed from a concern that large new German and Italian destroyers outclassed existing British designs. The "Tribals", in response, were among the biggest and most heavily gunned destroyers of their day, though at the sacrifice of drastically reduced torpedo armament. They had a tendency to roll in a sea-way but apart from this the "Tribals" were excellent destroyers. Three Australian "Tribals" were built, but only Arunta and Warramunga were commissioned in time to see war service. The third, begun in February 1942, originally to be named Kurnai, had her name changed to Bataan in honour of the American stand there. Arunta was the first to go to war, sinking a Japanese submarine off Port Moresby (29th August 1942).
Subsequently, the stories of Arunta and Warramunga are closely bound up with the tale of Task Group 74, the Australian-American cruiser squadron which operated as an outpost of the US Navy in New Guinea, the Solomons and Borneo. Most of their actions involved shore bombardment in support of land operations, including Humboldt Bay, Brunei Bay and Wewak. Arunta also took part in the severe naval fighting of Surigao Strait (25th October 1944), and Lingayen Gulf (January 1945), during the latter of which she was slightly damaged by a kamikaze aircraft. She went on to support Australian landings at Balikpapan (27th June 1945). She was refitting at Cockatoo dockyard, where she had been built, when the war ended. Warramunga, too, was at Lingayen Gulf, and supported Australian landings at Tarakan (1st May 1945). She was at Subic Bay in the Phillipines when the war ended, and steamed immediately for Tokyo Bay, where shortly she became the flagship of the Australian squadron there.
HMA Ships Quickmatch and Quiberon.
Specifications
(Original) Dimensions - 358.75 feet o/a, beam 35.75 feet, draft 9.75 feet. Displacement 1,705 tons. Performance - 36.75 knots at 40,000 shp. Armament - 4 single 4.7 inch guns, 1 quadruple 2-pounder AA, 4 twin 20mm Oerlikon guns, 2 quadruple 21 -inch torpedo tubes.
From 1941, Britain’s War Construction Programme turned out several classes of destroyers, cheaper versions of the "J-K-N" group and initially armed with whatever was available. Though some people criticised them as under-gunned, they were strongly built and excellent sea-keepers. The "Q" class were among these. Quiberon and Quickmatch were crewed by Australians under the same arrangement as the "N" class, by which the British provided essential maintenance. Thus, like the "N"s, these ships served chiefly as elements within Royal Navy squadrons. Quiberon began her war in July 1942, Quickmatch in September. Before the end of the year, Quiberon had supported the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, sunk an Italian submarine and been part of a cruiser force which destroyed a German-Italian convoy off Cape Bone; Quickmatch had intercepted a blockade runner. Quiberon stayed in African waters throughout 1943; Quickmatch went to the Indian Ocean. During 1943 their paths hardly crossed, Quiberon steaming to Australia and then joining the British Far East Fleet in June, Quickmatch on general duties in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. By mid 1944 both were a part of the British Far East Fleet. In July, Quickmatch was part of an inshore squadron which entered the Japanese-held harbour of Sabang and bombarded the installations. While Quickmatch served in Australian waters for the first time in October 1944, Quiberon was bombarding Japanese positions in the Nicobar Islands. In March 1945, both ships joined the newly-formed British Pacific Fleet, where they spent the remainder of their war service screening British aircraft carriers during attacks on the Japanese home islands. So useful had these War Construction Programme ships turned out that another three "Q"s - Quality, Quadrant and Queenborough - joined the RAN post-war, in exchange for the "N" class which were returned to the Royal Navy. All were subsequently converted to anti-submarine frigates.Back to top of this page