- Author
- Arget
- Subjects
- History - general
- Tags
- None noted.
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Arunta I, HMAS Bataan, HMAS Warramunga I
- Publication
- December 1982 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
DURING THE 1930S THE TRIBALS were designed to lend heavier gun support to existing flotillas and were influenced by similar contemporary German (Type 1934), Japanese (Asashio Class) and the American (Gridley Class) destroyers.
Originally designated the Afridi class, they became more commonly known later as the Tribals.
Compared with earlier English destroyers they carried twice as many guns and were almost 600 tons heavier, and were the last British destroyer to be built on the transverse framing system.
The 16 Royal Navy vessels were completed between May 1938 and March 1939 and were originally armed with 8 x 4.7″ guns, but after the Norway campaign ‘X’ turrets were replaced with twin 4″.
The Royal Canadian Navy ordered 4 Tribals in Britain in 1940-41 and these were completed in 1942-43.
Another 4 were ordered in 1942 and were laid down in Canada in 1943 but were not completed till after the war.
All 8 of the Canadian Tribals were armed with 8 x 4″ in four twin mountings.
Australia originally intended to build 7 but eventually only 3 were laid down.
Listed below are the names of Warramunga’s sister ships and their fates.
Royal Navy
- Gurkha:
- Sunk April 1st 1941 by aircraft off Norway.
- Mohawk:
- Sunk April 16th 1941, torpedoed by Italian destroyer Luca Tariago, Mediterranean.
- Afridi:
- Sunk May 3rd 1941 by aircraft off Norway.
- Mashona:
- Sunk May 28th 1941 by aircraft North Atlantic.
- Cossack:
- Sunk October 25th 1941, torpedoed U-563 West of Gibraltar.
- Matabele:
- Sunk January 7th 1942, torpedoed U-454 Russian Convoy PQ8, 2 survivors only.
- Maori:
- Sunk February 12th 1942 by aircraft, in Grand Harbour Malta.
- Punjabi:
- Sunk May 1st 1942, cut in two by King George V on Russian Convoy PQ15.
- Bedouin:
- Sunk June 15th 1942 by aircraft, Mediterranean.
- Somali:
- Sunk September 7th 1942, torpedoed U-743 Russian Convoy QP14.
- Sikh:
- Sunk September 14th 1942 by shore batteries, Tobruk.
- Zulu:
- Sunk September 15th 1942 by aircraft, between Tobruk and Alexandria.
- Eskimo:
- Scrapped ’48-49.
- Tartar:
- Scrapped ’48-49.
- Nubian:
- Scrapped ’48-49.
- Ashanti:
- Scrapped ’48-49.
The Admiralty in its infinite wisdom laid down in 1960 7 Type 81 Frigates, all being completed by 1964 and carried on the Tribal’s names.
Ashanti , Gurkha, Mohawk, Nubian, Tartar, Zulu and Eskimo
These Frigates were of revolutionary design, using the world’s first dual propulsion machinery with a single shaft 12,500 HP steam turbine for cruising, and on the same shaft a 7,500 HP gas turbine to boost to 28 knots.
The latest information from the British Naval Attaché is that these ships are currently in Reserve.