Tribal destroyers and rapid wartime learning

Tribals, Battles and Darings uses the Tribal-class story to show how quickly operational assumptions changed in wartime. HMS Gurkha detached to improve her firing position against attacking aircraft because recent Norwegian convoy experience suggested that destroyers could manoeuvre independently without being lost. By 22 April, less than two weeks after the 9 April attack, officers had concluded that concentration and mutual support offered the better defence. The book limits its scope to ships that could be researched directly in the archives, avoiding claims based on work completed by other historians. These destroyers still carried 4.7-inch guns because the later 4.5-inch destroyer armament was not yet ready.