British Destroyers & Frigates Quotes

“There seems no longer to be anything resembling the permanent structure which produced the Staff Requirements prominent in this book. Instead, ad hoc groups are formed. Their advantage – and disadvantage – is that they begin with a clean sheet of paper. Although members are aware of their own experience, they are unlikely to be aware of the many policy issues which had shaped previous ships.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“War itself would last only a week, which really meant until one side or the other credibly threatened to go nuclear.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“FADE seems to have been the Royal Navy’s introduction to volume-critical ships, which have been the rule ever since.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich waving his piece of paper and saying that his agreement to let Hitler take Czechoslovakia had guaranteed ‘peace in our time,’ but privately he said that he had found Hitler was the nastiest human specimen he had ever met.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“Tribals’ were certainly the most famous of all British destroyers, and probably the best-looking. They were certainly well-liked, the only apparent defect being some structural weakness (which was corrected) which can probably be traced to a willingness to increase hull stresses so as to stay within the Treaty displacement limit.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“At this stage specified armament was five twin 4.7in and torpedoes. Three of the twin mounts would be forward and two aft, for the best possible arcs, despite the enlarged silhouette that would entail”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“It may be that the effect of sea power often can be appreciated only in a dynamic war game, in which the enemy’s behaviour changes over time. This is why, during the 1980s, the US Navy invested so heavily in its wargaming facilities.”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After

“The Admiralty felt only a limited need to explain its reasoning to outsiders. Ship requirements and designs were almost completely an internal matter, although there was sporadic interference from above (as is evident, for example, in wartime Minutes from Prime Minister Winston Churchill).”
― Norman Friedman, British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War & After