HMAS Quadrant (G11)

HMAS "Quadrant" (G11/F01), named for the navigational instrument, was a Q class destroyer laid down by R. and W. Hawthorn, Leslie and Company Limited at Hebburn-on-Tyne in England on 24 September 1940, launched on 28 February 1942, and commissioned in the Royal Navy as HMS "Quadrant" on 26 November 1942.

Armament

;DestroyerShe had four 4.7-inch guns, four Vickers Armstrongs 2 pounder guns, six 20 mm Oerlikon cannons, two were later replaced by 40 mm Bofors cannons, and it had eight 21-inch torpedo tubes.

;FrigateShe had two 4-inch guns, two 40 mm Bofors cannons, and two Squids (ahead throwing anti-submarine weapons).

Operational history

Royal Navy service

During World War II, "Quadrant" served with the British Eastern and British Pacific Fleets.cite web|url=http://www.navy.gov.au/HMAS_Quadrant |title=HMAS Quadrant |accessdaymonth=15 September |accessyear=2008 |publisher=Sea Power Centre Australia]

"Quadrant" was engaged in convoy escort duties in the Arctic, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean. She took part in the North African landings, aircraft carrier strikes against Surabaya and bombardment of the Nicobar Islands. She served with the British Pacific Fleet in 1945 where she took part in operations against Formosa (Taiwan), Okinawa, and the Japanese home islands, and served as a troop carrier from New Guinea to Australia.

RAN service

;1945"Quadrant" was loaned to the Royal Australian Navy in exchange for the return of one of the N class destroyers. "Quadrant" commissioned into the RAN 18 October 1945, but paid off into Reserve on 20 June 1947. She was then put under the command of Acting Lieutenant Commander William F. Cook.

;1950On 15 February 1950 the heavy cruiser HMAS "Australia" departed Sydney for Melbourne with "Quadrant" in tow. The vessels arrived at Melbourne on 18 February. She was converted to a fast anti-submarine frigate at the Williamstown Naval Dockyard in Melbourne on June 1950 and recommissioned on 16 July 1953.

;1954-1957After recommissioning, Quadrant's service was mainly in Australian waters. "Quadrant" escorted the Royal Yacht "Gothic" during the visit to Australia of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh in February 1954. Quadrant visited New Guinea, Manus and New Britain in October 1954, New Zealand in March 1955, and spent a period on exercises in Far East waters in June 1955. In March 1956 she took part in exercises in Malayan waters. During June 1956 she served for a period as a surveillance vessel with the Japanese pearling fleet in the Arafura Sea. In October 1956 she again proceeded to the Far East for further exercises, visiting Hong Kong, Singapore and Manila. "Quadrant" paid of into Operational Reserve at Sydney on 16 August 1957 and was sold for scrap to the Japanese firm of Kinoshita and Company Limited on 15 February 1963.

References