HMS Zulu (DDL-1939)
The RN, for some time, had been worried about the A-F class and prior classes
of destroyers being outclassed by the destroyer construction in other countries.
To provide a 'ship of force' that could back up the earlier destroyers, the
Admiralty designed an 1850 ton (grew to over 2,000 tons over the length of
building time of the class) ship with four twin 4.7" open mountings of the new
DP model. Only one set of torpedo tubes was to be fitted to compensate for the
4th turret. To ameliorate the loss of a set of torpedoes, the Tribal Class were
the first ships in the RN to be fitted with the new quintuple mounting. The new
DP mounting proved a winner with much greater AA and Surface capabilities than
the older low angle mountings.
The first three ships all received 'G' names as they were to be the flotilla
leaders of the three half flotillas of G class destroyers. In total, 32 Tribal
Class were completed between 1937 and 1946. 24 were completed for the RN, 4 for
Canada, and Australia built four of their own.