page_title: Philip Vian
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Philip Vian / World War II
caption_attribution_description: The Tribal class destroyer HMS Cossack (F03) underway on completion.
context_page_description: Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Louis Vian GCB, KBE, DSO & Two Bars was a Royal Navy officer who served in both World Wars.
  Vian specialised in naval gunnery from the end of World War I, and subsequently received several appointments as gunnery officer. In the early 1930s, he was given command of a destroyer, HMS Active, and, later, various destroyer flotillas. During this phase of his career, in early 1940, he commanded a force that forcibly released captured British merchant sailors from the German supply ship Altmark in Jøssingfjord in then-neutral Norway and, later, his flotilla took an active role in the final action of the German battleship Bismarck.
  Much of Vian's World War II service was in the Mediterranean, where he commanded a cruiser squadron, defended several critical convoys and led naval support at the Allied invasions of Sicily and Italy. His wartime service was completed in command of the air component of the British Pacific Fleet, with successful actions against the Japanese in Sumatra and the western Pacific. Post-war, Vian served in the United Kingdom, as a Fifth Sea Lord and as Commander-in-Chief, Home Fleet.
context_section_description: Vian returned to the UK shortly before World War II broke out. An appointment to command the boys' training establishment HMS Ganges was cancelled, and he was appointed to command of the 11th Destroyer Flotilla. This flotilla had been recently activated from reserve and consisting of seven old V and W-class destroyers plus his own ship, HMS Mackay, based first at Plymouth then at Liverpool, with the role of escorting Atlantic convoys. There was an ineffective brush with a u-boat. A change in policy required Vian, as a Captain (D), to operate from shore, the better to command his flotilla. Early in 1940 he moved, this time to command of the 4th Destroyer Flotilla, the famous Tribal-class destroyers. The leader's ship at the time was HMS Afridi but as she was due for a refit he swapped ships to take over HMS Cossack.
caption: The destroyer, HMS Cossack, which Vian commanded
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