Destroyer flotillas as practical schools for naval command

A flotilla commander had few staff officers and therefore had to select people who compensated for personal weaknesses. Success also depended on synchronizing several ships without a larger headquarters to rescue poor coordination. The appointment acted as a trial by fire that helped distinguish officers ready for promotion from those likely to finish their careers in smaller independent commands. That experience helps explain the prominence of destroyer officers such as Andrew Cunningham, Philip Vian, and Louis Mountbatten in the Royal Navy's Second World War leadership. The resulting network was a cadre trained through destroyer-flotilla work, rather than the battleship or carrier mafia often imagined.