HMAS Toowoomba (DDE-1941+)

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These are the Australis Navy equivalents of the British Hunt class destroyer escorts. The new feature to these ships was the light twin 4" turret developed for them and the later frigates of the later River/Bay/Loch type UK designs. The new turret made a big impression when compared to the open mount, the crew morale increased and the turret working became even better.

This class was the '20' year replacements for the VW class ships which were reaching the ends of their useful lives. The class started being laid down in 1938 with the first 4 having completion dates from late 1940 to early 1941. Eventually 16 were built, but they were expensive and quite complicated to build which used up resources at the Navy dockyards. The River class AA units were almost as good at 1/2 the cost and were built at non-navy yards (see Murray/Cape Yorke classes).

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