After the troops had been withdrawn, Afridi remained with the transports and escorts moving back toward the main fleet. Two dive bombers bracketed the flotilla leader, and her continued turn could not prevent one bomb from wrecking a boiler room and another from tearing open the port side forward. Vian and most of the company were rescued before the ship rolled over and sank. Cossack then became the Fourth Destroyer Flotilla's principal leader. The campaign's losses and demand for capable ships elsewhere help explain why Tribals increasingly operated in pairs rather than intact eight-ship flotillas.
Chapter · 2:54:56-2:56:56
Afridi's loss after the successful Namsos evacuation
Afridi helped evacuate the Namsos force without losing a transport, then succumbed to two bomb hits while the convoy returned to the fleet.