HMS Matchless (G52): The Destroyer Ordered to Finish Off Her Own Burning Sister

Into the Arctic Convoys

HMS Matchless commissioned on 26 February 1942, an M-class fleet destroyer built for the Royal Navy amid the darkest and most demanding stretch of the naval war, and was straight into anti-submarine exercises at Scapa Flow by that March, before being committed almost immediately to convoy operations to and from northern Russia between April and May 1942, some of the most gruelling and dangerous escort work the Royal Navy undertook throughout the entire conflict.

Distant and Close Cover Through the Arctic Night

HMS Matchless served as part of the distant cover force provided by the Home Fleet, alongside battleships, aircraft carriers and cruisers, escorting Convoy PQ 14 and the returning Convoy QP 10 in April 1942.

She was then assigned to the close cover force that departed Seidisfjord on 29 April 1942 to escort Convoy PQ 15 on the perilous run to Murmansk, ferrying vital war supplies to the Soviet Union through waters plagued by German aircraft, surface raiders and U-boats alike.

Scuttling HMS Trinidad

HMS Matchless's most difficult moment came in May 1942, when she was among the destroyers escorting the badly damaged light cruiser HMS Trinidad away from northern Russia.

HMS Trinidad had already been crippled, struck by one of her own malfunctioning torpedoes earlier in the year and further damaged by German air attack, and when a fire aboard her finally spiralled out of control beyond any hope of saving the ship, the grim decision was taken to scuttle her rather than risk her capture or a slower, more dangerous loss.

HMS Matchless was given the task, firing three torpedoes that sent HMS Trinidad to the bottom at 0120 hours, a remarkably painful duty for any crew, being ordered to finish off a stricken sister ship rather than continue trying to save her.

Running the Gauntlet to Malta

HMS Matchless left the Arctic behind for the Mediterranean that summer, taking part in Operation Harpoon, one of the hard-fought convoy operations mounted to resupply besieged Malta, departing the Clyde on 4 June 1942 for a passage that, like so many Malta convoys of the period, ran a gauntlet of Axis air and submarine attack in order to keep the island fed, fuelled and fighting.

A Second Career Under the Turkish Flag

HMS Matchless survived the war and went on to a second career far from British waters, sold to the Turkish Navy in 1958 and renamed Kilicipasa, joining the not inconsiderable ranks of former Royal Navy destroyers that spent their later years serving allied fleets rather than ending up at the breakers, a quietly fitting continuation for a ship whose wartime service had already asked so much of her.