Patreon 21: Notable WW2 commanders of smaller naval forces

Mohawk's location is known but under-studied, while Bedouin has received almost no serious wreck investigation.

Nine Tribal-class destroyers are named as missing wrecks in a 2021 discussion of archaeological gaps.

A discussion of missing and under-studied destroyer wrecks separates discovery from the historical work needed after a site is located.

Probably yes; it likely requires specialist diving equipment or an ROV rather than a standard recreational dive.

Remaining hidden can deter looting, but a wreck cannot receive targeted protection until authorities know where it is.

Basil Jones excelled in operational destroyer command while avoiding the staff appointments that supported promotion.

Jones experiments with destroyer formations until a difficult line-abreast approach gives radar and forward guns the clearest night-fighting arcs.

Philip Vian supported the arrangement and retained wider operational responsibility, giving experimentation experienced senior cover.

Canadian Tribal-class destroyers and Polish warships joined the British force against German ships at Ushant.

Sherbrooke's unusually late move from capital ships and cruisers into destroyers leads to repeated Tribal-class commands and flotilla leadership.

Sherbrooke's destroyers repeatedly threaten a much stronger German force, preserving convoy JW 51B despite severe wounds and heavy odds.

Experience after PQ 17, confidence in the covering force, firmer orders, and aggressive flotilla commanders produced a very different response.

Combine smaller Baltic-focused corvettes with two or three larger frigates for expeditionary work.

It was central: rough seas punished crews and ships, while unusual calm made concealment much harder.

HMS Belfast disabled the radar with 6-inch gunfire.

William Agnew's commands link cruiser leadership, Malta's Force K, and eventual command of HMS Vanguard.

Agnew pairs cruisers with destroyers, uses radar and deception, and prioritizes deliberate accuracy in a devastating night attack on an Axis convoy.

A discussion of promotion argues that shrinking fleets also remove the sea commands that retain action-oriented officers.

Vian's commands span destroyer flotillas, cruisers, carriers, amphibious operations, and the Home Fleet.

A comparison with the submarine Perisher course presents the Royal Navy's less mythologized but similarly demanding surface command training.

It created friction, but operational constraints explain much of his severity and many aviators respected his commitment to recovering them.

HMS Cossack forces its way into Jossingfjord, boards Altmark, and frees prisoners taken by Admiral Graf Spee.

Freeing the prisoners was politically defensible; stealing the damaged ship from Norwegian waters would have been much harder to justify.

Some cruiser personnel may have carried swords, but destroyer parties more often relied on firearms, knives, and improvised close-combat weapons.

They may have tried, but the message arrived after the British had already found Altmark through other intelligence.

Churchill strongly approved, and Vian became an early choice for later difficult assignments.

It hastened the timetable for invading Norway while denying Germany prisoners and a major psychological victory.

No single modern twelve-mile rule applied in 1940; older claims often followed a roughly three-mile cannon-shot limit, and Altmark was inside Norwegian internal waters regardless.

Yes; boarding, rifle drill, landing parties, and defence of the ship remained part of naval training.

No; destroyers carried few Marines, and even the cruiser-supplied parties included many sailors.

Glowworm fights two destroyers, attacks Admiral Hipper with torpedoes, and finally rams the German cruiser before sinking.

Admiral Hipper's captain later directed German midget submarines and combat divers before writing on naval strategy.

They escaped the immediate action but soon became involved in the battles of Narvik.

Renown's heavy guns help explain why two German battlecruisers broke off their Norwegian engagement.

The loss of a destroyer is weighed against the chance to damage or expose a German heavy cruiser that the Kriegsmarine could not readily replace.

She was not ideal in those seas, but she handled them better than the top-heavy German destroyers.

A retired First World War commander returns in 1939 and volunteers for a hazardous special-service mission at age fifty-three.

Operation Reservist sends two former Coast Guard cutters through Oran's boom to land troops directly against overwhelming defenses.

A parallel Operation Torch plan sent destroyers under Henry St John Fancourt on another direct harbor assault.

Losing Courageous, Glorious, and Ark Royal removed the reserve capacity that might have placed a carrier with Force Z.

Grounding, work-up and air-group delays, competing Mediterranean needs, and mistaken deterrence assumptions kept her away.

Yes; doctrine emphasized airborne warning and ready strike aircraft, though employment and damage-control failures sometimes defeated it.

A short doctrinal aside warns against assuming that missile warfare will keep ships permanently beyond gun range.

A reported origin story for Operation Reservist has Peters nominate himself after judging the assignment likely to be suicidal.

New lower decorations and changing procedures raised the threshold, so acts once given the top medal might later receive a lesser award.

A discussion of military collecting distinguishes documented preservation from predatory acquisition and private veneration.

Probably not; their known refits were mainly in Britain, India, and South Africa, while larger ships were sent to New York.

Renown was much better because she had received the major modernization that Repulse lacked.

The attacking force tried to present the harbor penetration as an American operation rather than another British attack on the French fleet.

Yes; relatives can supply unique context, provided their recollections are clearly distinguished from archival and multi-source evidence.

A brief general-history aside warns that civil-war factions contain competing subgroups that complicate intervention.

About two to three weeks for a locally based ship or up to six weeks for a new arrival, chiefly to enclose openings and keep crew spaces workable in severe cold.