Q Ships WW2

[tigercat]

I have just got "On Hazardous Service" by A Cecil Hampshire from the library. The 1st chapter is fascinating all about Q Ships in WW2

The Royal Navy had 6 ocean going ships and 3 coastal.

Compared to the German raiders  the programme seemed tro have been the victimn of official indifference and in some cases hostility with Vice Admiral Campbell VC DSO a former Q Ship captain from WW1 ( who had commanded 3 Q ships in WW1) having annoyed some of his peers.

The ships themselves were whatever could be scraped together and generally too slow and inadequate for the job their armamanet varying between 7 and 9 4 inch guns , 4 torpedo tubes and 4 lewis guns.

Despite this they very brave and were determined to take on German Raiders including pocket Battleships as well as U Boats,

The crew were encouraged  to let the Uboats to torpedo their ships. A philosophy pioneered by the then Captain Campbell in WW1 who had 3 Q Ships torpedoed in exchange for sinking 3 Uboats.

In their travels they encountered various allied warships and reported a certain laxness in their approaches to unknown Merchantships. An attitude which would ultimately lead in tragedy in the case of HMAS Sidney   

What they could have achieved if properly equipped and used. They  were too slow and there were cases where they heard Merchantships Raider reports but were too slow to get to the site in order to put themselves in the way of German raiders and trail their coat.