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The River or E class of 1913 were the first destroyers of the Royal Navy with a high forecastles instead of "turtleback" bow making this the first class with a more recognizable modern configuration. River or E class: 36 ships, 1903–1905 (including 2 later purchases) Cricket-class coastal destroyer: 36 ships, 1906–1909
The Q and R-class destroyers were two classes of sixteen War Emergency Programme destroyers ordered for the Royal Navy in 1940 as the 3rd and 4th Emergency Flotilla. They served as convoy escorts during World War II. Three Q-class ships were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy upon completion, with two further ships being handed over in 1945.
At the beginning of the Second World War, the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world. It had 20 battleships and battlecruisers ready for service or under construction, twelve aircraft carriers, over 90 light and heavy cruisers, 70 submarines, over 100 destroyers as well as numerous escort ships, minelayers, minesweepers and 232 aircraft.
Four of the above ships along with destroyer leader Stuart were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy in October 1933. The ships all served in World War II with three being sunk or scuttled during 1941 and 1942. During their war service in the Mediterranean the five transferred ships made up a group that became famous as the Scrap Iron Flotilla.
Due to supply problems and the persistent failure by the Royal Navy to develop a suitable dual-purpose weapon for destroyers, they were fitted with whatever armament was available. Advances in radar and weaponry were incorporated as they came available.
HMS Suffolk (55) was one of the Kent subclass of the County-class heavy cruisers Heavy cruisers were defined by international agreement pre-war for the purposes of arms limitation as those with guns greater than 6-inch (152 mm); ships of guns of 6-inch or less were light cruisers.
British Destroyers: A History of Development, 1892–1953 Drawn by Admiralty Permission from Official Records and Returns, Ships' Covers and Building Plans, Edgar J. March 1966, Seeley, Service & Co OCLC 468636240. Destroyers of the Royal Navy, 1893–1981, Maurice Cocker, 1983, Ian Allan ISBN 0-7110-1075-7
The I-class destroyers were a group of nine destroyers, including a flotilla leader, built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Four similar ships were ordered by the Turkish Navy, of which two were purchased for the Royal Navy, bringing the number of these ships in British service to 11—although three of the original ships had been lost by the time Inconstant and Ithuriel were commissioned.