HMS Matchless (G52)

History

United Kingdom
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 Kılıç Ali Paşa
Notes:	Pennant number G52
Turkey
Name:	TCG Kılıç Ali Paşa
Namesake:	Uluç Ali Reis
Acquired:	16 July 1959
Struck:	August 1971
Identification:	D350
Fate:	scrapped
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	M-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,920 long tons (1,950 t) (standard) 2,725 long tons (2,769 t) (deep load)
Length:	362 ft 3 in (110.4 m) (o/a)
Beam:	37 ft (11.3 m)
Draught:	14 ft (4.3 m)
Installed power:	48,000 shp (36,000 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 × shafts 2 × geared steam turbines
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:	190
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC Type 285 gunnery radar Type 290 air warning radar
Armament:	3 × twin 4.7 in (120 mm) Mk XI dual-purpose guns 1 × single QF 4 in (102 mm) Mk V anti-aircraft gun 1 × quadruple QF 2-pdr (40 mm) Mk VIII AA guns 2 × single Oerlikon 20 mm (0.8 in) AA guns 2 × quadruple, 2 × twin 0.5 in (12.7 mm) Vickers Mark III anti-aircraft machineguns 1 × quadruple 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes 42 × depth charges, 2 × racks, 2 × throwers

HMS Matchless was a M-class destroyer built during World War II. She served two commissions with the Royal Navy: from February 1942 to August 1944 and from August 1944 to April 1946. She was then held in reserve until August 1957 and eventually sold to the Turkish Navy, who renamed her TCG Kılıç Ali Paşa. She was struck from the Turkish Navy list and scrapped in 1971.

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.

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 Trinidad, 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.

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