Royal Navy Destroyers Part One -
Hunt and Tribal Classes

R W Smith Jr.

AA Military Research

Reviewed by Glen Porter

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AA Military Research:

This small organization, based in the US, primarily does research into mainly US Navy subjects and occasionally release CDs like this on various subjects. Although the research is not available to the general public (professional organizations only), the CDs can be purchased through their web site at http://www.aa-military-research.com

A Brief History

The term Destroyer is an abbreviation of Torpedo Boat Destroyer, small ships specifically designed to protect the fleet against attack from marauding torpedo carrying craft. The Tribal Class were the biggest and most powerful built for the Royal Navy before WW II. Although not as big or powerful as some built by and for other navies, French, German and US in particular, they were considered the best of the British ships. During the War, both Canada and Australia acquired Tribal class ships, the RAN built their own but I don't know who built the Canadian ships.

The Hunt Class, on the other hand, I've always had a problem with. The Royal Navy, as far as I know, never distinguished between Fleet Destroyers and any other kind. This meant they all had to have a top speed of around 35 knots to be able to sail with the Battle Fleet. The Hunts, on the other hand, were smaller, slower (about 27 knots) and had a lighter armament, obviously designed as escorts. So why weren't they call Frigates like all the other ships of a similar size and speed? Frigates were ships specifically designed not to sail with the Battle Fleet from Nelsons days.

Well, apparently the answer lies in the fact that they were design by the Admiralty along Destroyer line as apposed to being deign by the ship-yards themselves, I think.

The Disc

Designed some-what like a web-site, on loading the disc you get a Main Page complete with a menu on the left and text on the right. The menu consists of the various subjects on the disc such as Hunt Class, Tribal Cass, About AAMR, Contact Us, etc. Click on one of these buttons and up comes another page with again, a menu on the left (Main Page, Hunt Class Type 1, Type 2, 3 and 4) and text on the right with over-all details of the class. Again, click on a menu button, say Hunt Class Type 1, and up comes the page for that class. Text gives details of the specific ships, including their names, specifications and differences from the other classes. This is followed by a host of B&W photos (45 in this instance) but not all ships are represented in the photo gallery.

The Tribal Class section is the same except that it comes under British Ships, Canadian and Australian Ships. Again, not all ships are represented, for instance, in the Australian section, there were only three ships involved, Arunta (The Runt), Bataan (The Bat?) and Warramunga (The Mongrel). There are only 9 photos, 8 of The Runt, 1 of the Mongrel and none of Bataan. This has come about because most, although not all, photos have come from US National and Naval Archives which often depended on ships visiting US ports.

Conclusion

This is a good reference for ship modellers or enthusiasts.

As I said above, not all ships are represented. The only shot I've ever seen of HMS Cossack is presented here again and although some are of poor quality, many of those are special such as HMS Bedouin, from a newspaper clipping, almost on her beams end, with a big hole in her side and a damaged bow, just before she foundered.

If you are interested in these two classes, either as a modeller, historian or just an enthusiast, the chance are that you will find something of interest here.

Thanks to AA Minitary Research for the review sample