Name: HMS MATCHLESS
Ordered: 7 July 1939, Builder: Alexander Stephen and Sons, Linthouse, Scotland, Laid down: 14 September 1940, Launched: 4 September 1941, Completed: 26 February 1942, Commissioned: 12 February 1942, Recommissioned: August 1944, Decommissioned: April 1946, Fate: Sold to the Turkish Navy 16 July 1959, renamed KILIC ALI PASHA, Notes: Pennant number G52
Career (Turkey)
Name: TCG KILIC ALI PASHA (D350), Namesake: Uluç Ali Reis, Acquired: 16 July 1959, Struck: August 1971, Fate: scrapped
General characteristics: as completed
Class and type: M-class destroyer, Displacement: 1,920 long tons (1,950 t) (standard), 2,660 long tons (2,700 t) (deep), Length: 362 ft 3 in (110.4 m) o/a, Beam: 37 ft (11.3 m), Draught: 10 ft (3.0 m), Installed power: 48,000 shp (36,000 kW), Propulsion: 2 × shafts, 2 × Parsons geared steam turbines, 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers, Speed: 36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph), Range: 5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph), Complement: 221 (officers & ratings), Sensors and processing systems: ASDIC, Type 285 anti-aircraft (AA) radar, Type 286M air warning radar, Armament: 3 × 2 - 4.7 in (120 mm) Mark XI dual purpose guns, 1 × 1 - 4-inch Mark V AA gun, 1 × 4 - QF 2 pdr (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns, 2 × 1 - 20 mm (0.79 in) Oerlikon AA guns, 2 × 4, 2 × 2 - QF .5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers Mark III AA machine guns, 1 × 4 - 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes, 42 × depth charges, 2 rails and 2 throwers
Adoptions
Maidenhead Borough Council in Berkshire officially adopted HMS MATCHLESS after holding a Warship Week in March 1942 that raised £550,296. A ship's badge was presented to the borough in September 1942.
Associated Motor Cycles in southeast London, which made MATCHLESS motorcycles, unofficially adopted the ship in 1943. After the Battle of the North Cape in December 1943 her battle flag and other mementoes were presented to the company.
Service
MATCHLESS undertook sea trials in the Firth of Clyde and then joined the Home Fleet at Scapa Flow for crew training in gunnery and torpedo attacks. Her first active service was on an Arctic convoy to Murmansk and the Kola Inlet. On 13 May 1942 she was one of four destroyers that sailed from Murmansk escorting the light cruiser HMS TRINIDAD (46), which had been damaged during a previous convoy and partially repaired for her homeward voyage. On 15 May 20 Ju 88 bombers attacked the flotilla and one bomb set Trinidad on fire and crippled her. MATCHLESS rescued over 200 survivors and then scuttled Trinidad by torpedoing her.
In June 1942 MATCHLESS took part in Operation Harpoon: a heavily-armed convoy to relieve the besieged island of Malta. The convoy sailed from Gibraltar on 12 June and MATCHLESS was damaged by a mine off Malta on 15 June. This forced her to remain in Malta for repairs, where she survived 265 air raids. In August she sailed from Malta disguised as an Italian warship. She reached Gibraltar just in time to join Operation Pedestal, which was the next convoy to relieve Malta.
After Operation Pedestal, MATCHLESS escorted two successful Arctic convoys from Loch Ewe to the Kola Inlet: JW 51A in December 1942 and JW 51B in December and January. In May and June 1943 MATCHLESS escorted RMS Queen Mary part-way across the North Atlantic while the liner was carrying Winston Churchill to the USA. She then escorted further Arctic convoys: JW 54B in November 1943 and JW 55A in December 1943.
MATCHLESS was returning from the Kola Inlet with RA 55A in late December when she and three other destroyers were ordered to detach from the convoy to assist HMS DUKE OF YORK to engage the SCHARNHORST. On Boxing Day (26 December) 1943 the German battlecruiser was attacked in the Battle of the North Cape. She was weakened first by shellfire from DUKE OF YORK, then by torpedoes from British and Norwegian destroyers. Finally the destroyer detachment from Convoy JW 55A, including HMS MATCHLESS, closed in and sank SCHARNHORST with a further 19 torpedoes.
After the battle, MATCHLESS returned to Scapa Flow, resumed duties with the Home Fleet and performed escort duties including further Arctic convoys until August 1944. She was paid then off in Hull, but after repairs and a re-fit she was recommissioned later the same month. MATCHLESS saw further service in the Mediterranean until 1945, and was then decommissioned in April 1946.
MATCHLESS was then laid up off Portchester Castle in Hampshire where she was held in reserve until at least 1957. She was eventually sold to Turkey, who commissioned her as TCG KILIC ALI PASHA (D-350) after an Italian-born 16th century Turkish admiral, Uluç Ali Reis (1519–87). She served in the Turkish Navy until 1971, when she was struck from the list and scrapped.
Sources: Wikipedia. http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono ... CHLESS.htm.
Information Mr P Crichton