Somerville entered the Rear Admiral Destroyers appointment after a career centered on battleships, cruisers, and the Home Fleet. Destroyer flotillas worked differently: small crews, torpedo tactics, and close day-to-day contact between officers and petty officers produced a distinctive professional culture. He spent the appointment aboard a cruiser and appears to have remained uncomfortable with those habits. Remarks from destroyer personnel suggest that they saw the post as required sea time on his route toward higher strategic command. He performed adequately. The appointment still exposed the difference between holding a post and understanding its professional habits from long experience.
Notable Point · 19:02-21:33
Somerville's uneasy fit with destroyer command
Somerville completed the Rear Admiral Destroyers appointment adequately, though his capital-ship background left him outside the flotillas' close-knit professional culture.