Question:
What did it specifically consist of? Like the type of vessels and such. And what was the commanding vessel's usual model in a fleet? and was it possible for it to be a Destroyer? Thanks!
Answer:
At the outbreak of WW2 Britain had the largest an most powerful navy in the world (the USA overtook some time in 1943). From memory, it had seven aircraft carriers, fifteen battleships/battlecruisers (plus five more nearing completion), sixty cruisers and I don't know how many destroyers, smaller vessels, and submarines.
It was scattered round the world. There was the Home Fleet (based in Scapa Flow), the Mediterranean Fleet (Alexandria), the Far East Fleet (Singapore) and smaller detachments in the West Indies and the South Atlantic. Convoy protection duty was a sub-branch of the Home Fleet. The Canadian, Australian and New Zealand navies usually operated in co-operation with (and under the overall command of) the RN.
An Admiral's flagship was usually the largest vessel in the fleet - though there was a preference not to use carriers. In the Med, for example, Cunningham flew his flag in the battleship Warspite, though he had a carrier available (the Armericans behaved similarly, by the way. The Japanese surrender was signed on the deck of a battleship, not a carrier).
Where a battleship was not available, a lesser vessel was used. In 1939, Commodore had three RN and one RNZN cruisers at his disposal when he cornered the Graf Spee.
Destroyers usually operated in flotillas of four to six. Each was commanded by a captain, one of whom (known as Captain D) doubled as the senior officer of the whole flotilla (see Noel Coward in In Which we Serve).
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