HMS Mantis was sold in January 1940, while Glowworm had gone in 1928 and Bee in 1939. The timing mattered because treaty rules left Britain free to build more small gunboats, yet most of the Dragonfly class was not laid down until 1937 or 1938. Bee was cancelled in March 1940, Mosquito was lost off Dunkirk that June, and Dragonfly, Grasshopper, and Scorpion were all lost in February 1942. Locust alone survived the war among the completed boats listed here. The sequence supports a narrow procurement judgment: specialist inshore vessels could have been built earlier and in greater depth without consuming treaty-limited capital-ship tonnage.
Chapter · 46:03-49:17
Scrapped Insect-class hulls and the late Dragonfly program
Prewar disposal of Insect-class hulls and late construction of the Dragonfly class left Britain with little margin when several newer gunboats were lost.