Tribal class destroyer (1936)
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 HMS Afridi |
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| Class overview | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Tribal |
| Operators: |  Royal Navy Royal Canadian Navy Royal Australian Navy |
| Preceded by: | I class |
| Succeeded by: | J class |
| In commission: | May 3, 1938 - September 1963 |
| Completed: | 27 |
| Lost: | 13 |
| Preserved: | 1 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | destroyer |
| Displacement: | 1,850 tons (standard), 2,520 tons (full) |
| Length: | 377 ft o/a (115 m) |
| Beam: | 36 ft 6 in (11.1 m) |
| Draught: | 9 ft (2.75 m) |
| Propulsion: | 3 x Admiralty 3-drum boilers, steam turbines on 2 shafts, 44,000 shp |
| Speed: | 36 knots |
| Range: | 524 tons oil, 5,700 nm at 15 kt |
| Complement: | 190 (219 as leader) |
| Armament: | As designed;
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The Tribal class, or Afridi class, were a class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy that saw service in World War II.
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[edit] Design history
From 1926 all Royal Navy destroyers had descended from a common lineage based upon the prototypes Amazon and Ambuscade. Little advance had been made in the way of armament or machinery and by the mid-1930s it was obvious that the "interwar standard" type - as it was known[citation needed] - was being eclipsed by foreign designs that were potential adversaries. In light of this view, it was decided that a new design of large destroyers were needed, with an emphasis on gunnery over torpedoes. The original design called for 5 twin 4.7 in guns, 36 knots, an endurance of 5,500 nm on 1,850 tons.
By August 1935, after much debate, the design had evolved into one armed with 4 twin 4.7 in QF Mark XII on mountings CP Mark XIX controlled by a low-angle (LA) director and high-angle / low-angle (HA/LA) rangefinder director on the bridge. However, the main armament was only capable of 40° elevation and hence for anti-aircraft fire it was limited to long-range use only. The anti-aircraft armament consisting of a quadruple QF 2 pdr "pom pom" mounting Mark VII and 2 quadruple Vickers 0.5 in machine guns and a quadruple bank of torpedo tubes. They were handsome ships with a clipper bow, two raked funnels and masts and are remembered with great affection to this day.
The Tribals were so much larger and sufficiently different from the rest of the British destroyers in service that some consideration was given to resurrecting the classification of corvette and applying it to them. However this idea was dropped and the term would later be applied to small, mass-produced anti-submarine escorts such as the "Flower" class of World War Two.
Two flotillas of 8 ships each were ordered for the Royal Navy in 1936, with a flotilla ordered each by the Royal Australian Navy (three ships completed out of an initial plan for 7) and the Royal Canadian Navy. The Canadian order was for four ships from British yards in 1940 (completed in 1942 and 1943) and another four from domestic yards at Halifax in 1942. The latter were not completed until after the war. Altogether, between 1937 and 1945, twenty-seven Tribals were built.
[edit] Modifications
Early wartime experience showed the alarming lack of anti-aircraft firepower, the main armament, with its limited elevation, proving useless at short ranges, especially against dive bombers. After the loss of Afridi and Gurkha, the remaining ships were taken in hand to improve the situation. "X" 4.7 inch mounting was landed and replaced by a twin 4 inch gun QF Mark XVI on the mounting HA/LA Mark XIX. The mainmast was cut down and the rear funnel was lowered to improve the arcs of fire for the anti-aircraft weapons. As they became available, 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added, at first adding to and eventually replacing the useless 0.5 in machine guns. By 1944 the four surviving ships were given a tall lattice foremast to carry Radar Type 293 target indication and Type 291 air warning, with Type 285 added to the rangefinder-director.
[edit] Service
As some of the Royal Navy's most modern and powerful escorts, they were widely deployed in World War II, and served with great distinction in nearly all theatres of war. As a result, losses were heavy and twelve out of the sixteen Royal Navy Tribals were sunk, as well as one Canadian ship. Gurkha has the rare and unfortunate distinction of being the name of two ships that were sunk in World War II; the L class destroyer Larne being renamed to honour the lost Tribal class ship, and was herself lost in 1942.
[edit] 1940
Cossack earned fame early on in the war, when on 6 February 1940, commanded by the famed Captain Philip Vian, she pursued and then boarded the German ship Altmark in neutral Norwegian waters; the Altmark Incident. This was the last occasion when a naval boarding action took place with bayonets fixed. Gurkha was an early loss, being sunk by German bombers off Stavanger. Afridi was lost soon afterwards to dive bombers while evacuating troops from Namsos. John Gritten in his book 'Full Circle: Log of the Navy's No 1 Conscript' describes the event in considerable detail. Gritten was below deck in the boiler room at this point of the war but was later to become an Official Naval Reporter. Bedouin, Punjabi, Eskimo and Cossack took part in the Second Battle of Narvik, where Eskimo had her bows blown off.
[edit] 1941
In May 1941, Somali boarded the German weather ship München, retrieving vital Enigma cypher codebooks. In the same month, Zulu, Sikh, Cossack and Maori were in action against the German battleship Bismarck, with Mashona being sunk by German aircraft during these operations. In the Mediterranean, Mohawk was lost as part of "Force K", torpedoed by the Italian destroyer Tarigo in April. Cossack was torpedoed by U-563 in October while escorting convoy HG74 in the Atlantic, west of Gibraltar, sinking later under tow. Maori and Sikh were amongst the victors at the Battle of Cape Bon in December.
[edit] 1942
In 1942, Matabele was torpedoed and sunk in the Barents Sea and Maori was hit in the engine room by a bomb whilst lying in Grand Harbour, Valetta, in February, catching fire and later blowing up where she lay. Punjabi was tragically rammed and sunk by the battleship King George V whilst performing close escort in thick weather in May. In June, Bedouin was disabled in action with Regia Marina's cruisers Montecuccoli and Eugenio Di Savoia during Operation Harpoon. Although later taken in tow by Partridge the tow had to be cast when the Italian cruisers reappeared and, dead in the water, she was sunk by aircraft attack. In September, the final 2 Tribals lost in the Battle of the Mediterranean were sunk; Sikh and Zulu during a disastrous raid on Tobruk. Also that month, Somali was torpedoed by U-703 covering convoy QP14 during the Russian convoys. Although taken under tow by Ashanti, she sank 4 days later after heavy weather broke her back. This was the last Royal Navy Tribal to be sunk during the war.
[edit] 1943
The four remaining ships, Ashanti, Eskimo, Nubian and Tartar were back in the Mediterranean covering the "Avalanche landings at Salerno.
[edit] 1944
Eskimo, Nubian and Tartar saw extensive action in the English Channel before and after Operation Overlord. In April, Athabaskan was lost in the Channel, a subsequent Canadian Tribal being renamed in her honour. With the end of the naval war in the west, Eskimo, Nubian and Tartar were sent east. They saw action with Japanese forces off of Malaya, but having been fitted out for Arctic service, they were extremely unpleasant in tropical weather.
[edit] Post war
Post war, the remaining Royal Navy ships, worn out after 6 years of service, were scrapped. The Australian and Canadian ships, with the exception of Micmac, served at Korea, with Bataan at one point escorting a United States aircraft carrier with the same name.
[edit] Ships
[edit] Royal Navy
[edit] Royal Canadian Navy
| Name | Pennant | Builder | Laid Down | Launched | Commissioned | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iroquois (ex-Athabaskan) |
G89 | Vickers Armstrongs | September 19, 1940 | September 23, 1941 | December 10, 1942 | sold for scrapping, 1966 |
| Athabaskan (i) (ex-Iroquois) |
G07 | Vickers Armstrongs | October 31, 1940 | November 18, 1941 | February 3, 1943 | lost April 29, 1944, torpedoed by German torpedo boat T.24 north of Ile de Bas |
| Huron | G24 | Vickers Armstrongs | July 15, 1941 | June 25, 1942 | July 28, 1943 | sold for scrapping, 1965 |
| Haida | G63 | Vickers Armstrongs | September 29, 1941 | August 25, 1942 | September 18, 1943 | Preserved as museum ship, Hamilton, 1964 |
| Micmac | R10 | Halifax Shipyards, Halifax | May 20, 1942 | September 18, 1943 | September 14, 1945 | sold for scrapping, 1964 |
| Nootka (ii) | R96 | Halifax Shipyards | May 20, 1942 | April 26, 1944 | August 9, 1946 | sold for scrapping, 1964 |
| Cayuga | R04 | Halifax Shipyards | October 7, 1943 | July 28, 1945 | October 20, 1947 | sold for scrapping, 1964 |
| Athabaskan (ii) | R79 | Halifax Shipyards | May 15, 1944 | May 4, 1945 | January 12, 1947 | sold for scrapping, 1969 |
[edit] Royal Australian Navy
| Name | Pennant | Builder | Laid Down | Launched | Commissioned | Fate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arunta | I30 | Cockatoo Dockyard, Sydney | November 15, 1939 | November 30, 1940 | April 30, 1942 | Sold for scrapping 1969, foundered en route to breakers |
| Warramunga | I44 | Cockatoo | February 10, 1940 | February 2, 1942 | November 23, 1942 | Sold for scrapping 1963 |
| Bataan (ex-Kurnai) | I91 | Cockatoo | February 18, 1942 | January 15, 1944 | May 25, 1945 | Sold for scrapping 1958 |
[edit] The ships today
- Haida, the only surviving Tribal, has been restored and preserved as a museum in the harbour of Hamilton, Ontario Canada.
- The bow of Maori lies in 13 m (43 feet) of water in Marsamaxett Harbour, Valletta, Malta where she was sunk during World War II. It is a well-known scuba diving site.
[edit] References
- Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893-1981, Maurice Cocker, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
- Royal Navy Destroyers since 1945, Leo Marriot, Ian Allan, ISBN 0-7110-1817-0
- British and Empire Warships of the Second World War, H T Lenton, Greenhill Books, ISBN 1-85367-277-7
- Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships, 1922-1946, Ed. Robert Gardiner, Naval Institute Press, ISBN 0-87021-913-8
- Destroyers of World War Two : An International Encyclopedia, M J Whitley, Arms and Armour Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85409-521-8.
- HMCS Haida: Battle Ensign Flying, Barry M Gough, Vanwell, 2001, ISBN 1-55125-058-6
- Tribal Class Destroyers, Peter Hodges, Almark, 1971, ISBN 0-85524-047-4
- The Tribals, Martin H Brice, Ian Allan, 1971, ISBN 0-7110-0245-2
- Unlucky Lady: The Life and Death of HHCS Athabaskan 1940-44, Len Burrow & Emile Beudoin, Canada's Wings, 1983, ISBN 0-920002-13-7
[edit] External links
- HMCS Haida Official Web Site
- Friends of HMCS Haida web site
- Canadian Tribal Destroyer Association
- Specifications for each Tribal
[edit] See also
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