The Tribal class, or Afridi class, is a class of destroyers built for the Royal Navy, Royal Canadian Navy and Royal Australian Navy that saw service in World War II. Originally conceived during design studies for a light fleet cruiser, the Tribals evolved into fast, powerful destroyers, with greater emphasis on guns over torpedoes than previous destroyers, in response to new designs by Japan, Italy, and Germany. The Tribals were well admired by their crews and the public when they were in service due to their power, often becoming symbols of prestige while in service.

As some of the Royal Navy's most modern and powerful escort ships, the Tribal class served with distinction in nearly all theatres of World War II. Only a handful of Royal Navy Tribals survived the war, all of which were subsequently scrapped from hard use, while Commonwealth Tribals continued to serve into the Cold War, serving with distinction in the Korean War. Only one Tribal survives: , as a museum ship in Hamilton Harbour, Ontario, Canada.

Design history From 1926, all Royal Navy destroyers had descended from a common lineage based upon the prototypes and . During the interwar period, advances in armament and machinery meant that by the mid-1930s these "interwar standard" destroyers were being eclipsed by foreign designs, particularly from Japan, Italy, and Germany. To counteract this trend, the Admiralty decided on a new destroyer type, with an emphasis on gunnery over torpedo warfare. The destroyer was based on 'Design V', a design study for a small fleet cruiser (another variant of this design evolved into the ). This design envisioned a 1,850-ton ship with a speed of , an endurance of , and five twin 4.7 inch guns as main armament.

Although the design was rejected for the fleet cruiser role, by August 1935, after no fewer than eight design proposals, it had evolved to present a destroyer with eight 4.7 inch Quick Firing Mark XII guns, in four twin mountings, with a maximum elevation of 40°, controlled by a low-angle (LA) director and high-angle / low-angle (HA/LA) rangefinder director above the bridge. To provide close range anti-aircraft protection the design was fitted with a quadruple Mark VII QF 2 pdr "pom pom" mounting, and two quadruple Vickers .50-inch machine guns. These ships introduced the Fuze Keeping Clock High Angle Fire Control Computer, which was used on all subsequent British wartime destroyers.Destroyer Weapons of WW2, Hodges/Friedman, The ships were also armed with a quadruple bank of torpedo tubes. They were considered to be handsome ships, with a clipper bow that provided excellent seakeeping and two raked funnels and masts. They are still remembered with great affection.

Construction The Royal Navy placed an order for seven Tribals on 10 March 1936, with a second group of nine Tribals ordered on 9 June for two flotillas' worth of ships. The Royal Australian Navy and Royal Canadian Navy both ordered a flotilla of Tribals. The eight Australian ships were to be built in Australian shipyards. Three were completed, two in 1942 and one in 1945, but the rest were cancelled. The Canadian order was for four ships from British yards in 1940 (completed in 1942 and 1943) and another four from Canadian yards at Halifax in 1942. The latter were not completed until after the war.

Between 1937 and 1945, twenty-seven Tribals were built. Estimated cost per ship was around £340,000 excluding weaponry, and £520,000 overall.

Modifications

Wartime modifications The Royal Navy equipped the Tribal class with a comparatively heavy anti-aircraft armament; all eight 4.7in guns could engage aircraft with predicted fire using the FKC computer, and thus provide a powerful augmentation to the battle-fleet's AA defence.Harding, editor, The Royal Navy, 1930–2000: innovation and defence. pp. 19-41:, Pugh, Managing the aerial threat. The close range AA armament of a quad 2pdr and two quad Vickers machine guns was a marked advance over previous destroyer classesHodges and Friedman, Destroyer weapons of WW2, pp. 23-24. and heavier than most other nations' close range destroyer armament in 1939.Hodges and Friedman, Destroyer weapons of WW2, Previous to the Tribal class, Royal Navy destroyers carried either 2 x 2pdr AA guns or twin quadruple .5" Vickers machine guns. USN destroyers, in the same time frame, usually carried 4 x .5" Browning machine guns. However, prewar, the Royal Navy assumed that destroyers would be acting mainly as escorts for the battle-fleet, and would not be the primary focus of aerial attack and would not require more than 40-degree elevation for the main armament. Events soon showed that destroyers often functioned independently and so became the main target of Luftwaffe attack, especially by dive bombers. After the loss of Afridi and Gurkha, the remaining ships were taken in hand to improve the situation. Each ship's 'X' turret, which held a 4.7-inch mounting, was removed and replaced by two QF Mark XVI guns on the twin HA/LA Mark XIX mounting.Campbell, p. 40 The mainmast was cut down and the rear funnel was lowered to improve the arcs of fire for the anti-aircraft weapons. As they became available, the more effective 20 mm Oerlikon guns were added, at first adding to and eventually replacing the .50 in./12.7 mm machine guns. Depth charge storage was also increased, from 30 to 46 charges. Furthermore, the class initially had problems with leaks in feedwater tanks; this was traced to issues with the turbine blades caused by structural stress when steaming at high speed in rough weather.

By 1944, the four surviving British Tribals were given a tall lattice foremast to carry a Type 293 radar target indication and Type 291 air warning, with Type 285 radar added to the rangefinder-director. The first two Canadian built Tribals, Micmac and Nootka, were armed with the then standard armament of three 4.7-inch twin mountings and a single twin 4-inch mount, with the 4.7-inch mounts being given improved A.A. fuze setters,Hodges, p. 64. while the last two Canadian-built Tribals were equipped with eight Mark XVI guns with R.P.C. and four to six Bofors 40 mm guns as standard, along with a Mk VI Director.

Post-war modifications Post war, survivors of the class met different fates: Royal Navy Tribals were retired by the 1950s, while Tribals in service with the Australian and Canadian navies continued in service, with many refitted as anti-submarine destroyers. The British-built Canadian Tribals landed their 4.7-inch guns, and received a pair of 4-inch Mark XVI guns in twin mounts in the 'A' and 'B' positions instead, improving anti-aircraft capabilities, a pair of Squid mortars for anti-submarine warfare, and a twin 3 inch/50 Mark 33 gun on the 'X' position as an anti-aircraft weapon. Sensors were also upgraded for their new roles. Refitted Canadian Tribals continued to serve until the 1960s.

Two of the Australian Tribals, Arunta and Warramunga, were modernised during the early 1950s. The aft-most gun mounting was removed, with the space modified to accommodate a Squid anti-submarine mortar. New sonar and radar units were fitted, the latter requiring the replacement of the tripod radar mast with a stronger lattice structure. Although the modernisation was intended to take less than six months per ship, it took two years for each ship to be refitted, by which time their modifications had already become obsolete.Donohue, From Empire Defense to the Long Haul, p. 171 Financial restrictions meant that the third Australian Tribal, Bataan, was not modernised, and a combination of manpower shortages and rapid obsolescence saw all three ships decommissioned by the end of the 1950s.

Ships

Royal Navy + Construction dataNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissioned FateVickers Armstrongs, Walker9 June 19368 June 19373 May 1938Lost 3 May 1940 to aircraft attackWilliam Denny & Brothers, Dumbarton23 November 19365 November 193721 December 1938Sold for scrap, 12 April 194913 January 193721 December 193715 March 1939Lost 15 June 1942 to aircraft attack after being disabled by Italian cruisers and Vickers Armstrongs, Walker9 June 19368 June 19377 June 1938Lost 24 October 1941, torpedoed by 5 August 19363 September 193730 December 1938Sold for scrap, 27 June 1949Fairfield Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Govan6 July 19367 July 193721 October 1938Lost 9 April 1940, to aircraft attack6 July 19362 September 19372 January 1939Lost 12 February 1942 to aircraftVickers Armstrongs5 August 19363 September 193728 March 1939Lost 28 May 1941 to aircraft attackScotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Greenock1 October 19366 October 193725 January 1939Lost 17 January 1942, torpedoed by John I. Thornycroft & Company, Woolston16 July 193615 October 19377 September 1938Lost 16 April 1941, torpedoed by 10 August 193621 December 19376 December 1938Sold for scrap, 11 June 1949Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Company, Greenock1 October 193618 December 193729 March 1939Lost 1 May 1942, rammed by Alexander Stephen & Sons, Linthouse24 September 193617 December 193712 October 1938Lost 14 September 1942 to coastal artillerySwan Hunter & Wigham Richardson, Wallsend26 August 193624 August 193712 December 1938Lost 20 September 1942, torpedoed by , sank while under tow26 August 193621 October 193710 March 1939Sold for scrap, 6 January 1948Alexander Stephen & Sons, Linthouse10 August 193623 September 19377 September 1938Lost 14 September 1942 to aircraft attack

Royal Canadian Navy + Construction dataNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissionedFate ()Vickers Armstrongs, Newcastle19 September 194023 September 194110 December 1942Sold for scrap, 1966 (I) ()31 October 194018 November 19413 February 1943Lost 29 April 1944, torpedoed by 15 July 194125 June 194228 July 1943Sold for scrap, 196529 September 194125 August 194218 September 1943Preserved as museum ship, 1964Halifax Shipyards, Halifax20 May 194218 September 194314 September 1945Sold for scrap, 196420 May 194226 April 19449 August 19467 October 194328 July 194520 October 1947 (II)15 May 19444 May 194512 January 1947Sold for scrap, 1969

Royal Australian Navy + Construction dataNameBuilderLaid downLaunchedCommissionedFateCockatoo Island Dockyard, Sydney15 November 193930 November 194030 April 1942Sold for scrap 1969, foundered en route to breakers off Broken Bay10 February 19402 February 194223 November 1942Sold for scrap, 1963 ()18 February 194215 January 194425 May 1945Sold for scrap, 1958

Service As some of the Royal Navy's most modern and powerful escorts, they were widely deployed in World War II, and served with great distinction in nearly all theatres of war. The Tribals were often selected for special tasks, and as a result losses were heavy, with 12 of the 16 Royal Navy Tribals and one Canadian ship sunk. Gurkha has the rare and unfortunate distinction of being the name of two ships that were sunk in World War II: the L-class destroyer was renamed to honour the lost Tribal-class ship, and was herself lost in 1942.

1940

Cossack earned fame early on in the war, when on 6 February 1940, commanded by Captain Philip Vian, she pursued and then boarded the German tanker in neutral Norwegian waters in a daring attack to rescue around 300 British prisoners-of-war on board. Referred to as the Altmark Incident,The Times (London), Monday, 19 February 1940, p. 10 this was the last true naval boarding action for the Royal Navy. Gurkha was an early loss, being sunk by German bombers off Stavanger. Afridi was lost soon afterwards to dive bombers while evacuating troops from Namsos. Bedouin, Punjabi, Eskimo and Cossack took part in the Second Battle of Narvik, where Eskimo had her bow blown off.

1941