Interwar doctrine and dispersed naval forces

With the 1st Destroyer Flotilla in the Atlantic Fleet, Walker helped develop and test interwar operating ideas. British planners no longer treated another Grand Fleet battle line as the model for every future naval war. Growing engagement ranges pointed toward dispersed groups that could operate across an ocean while combining their effects. The later use of lettered formations such as Force H and Force K grew from this approach. Walker supplied the destroyer capability needed to exercise the doctrine at sea.