Ord.Sea. Colin Campbell Fisher Taylor
Royal Navy HMS Matchless
from:Stratford Upon Avon
My Father, Colin Taylor joined the HMS Matchless on it's commission in Glasgow in 1941. He saw action in the Maltese convoys (including the famous Operation Harpoon convoy that saved Malta), the Russian Artic convoys, and participated in the sinking of the German Battle Cruiser, the Scharnhorst. 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 , 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.[1] 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.
