How an interwar destroyer flotilla was organized

The Royal Navy normally built a leader alongside each class to command eight regular destroyers, producing a nine-ship flotilla. The leader used a modified version of the same basic design rather than an unrelated cruiser hull. Later Tribal-class ships were individually powerful enough to act as leaders, so the class did not need a separate designated vessel. That contrast prompts a joke about finding a ship powerful enough to lead the Tribals, underlining how far their firepower departed from the earlier pattern. Earlier classes still required separate leader variants.