 A lieutenant commander at the outbreak of the Second World War , Becher assisted in the extraction of Allied troops from the Namsos region of Norway while aboard the heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire , and was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross . Following service in the Mediterranean theatre , he returned to Australia in 1942 as officer @-@ in @-@ charge of the gunnery school at HMAS Cerberus . He spent two years at Cerberus before being given command of the Q class destroyer HMAS Quickmatch in March 1944 . While commanding Quickmatch in operations against Japanese forces in the Pacific , Becher earned a Bar to his Distinguished Service Cross . 
