From the very beginnings of torpedo craft, all naval powers have seen the occasional need for larger, more powerful or in other respects special designs that stand outside the contemporary norms for flotilla craft. The driving forces were often different from country to country and varied over time, but all the resulting ships may be conveniently defined as `super destroyers-. This book is a history of these out-of-the-ordinary vessels, the specific conditions that produced them, and their impact on naval warfare, especially during the two world wars. Notable highlights of this story include the introduction of `destroyer leaders- during the Great War, the Japanese `Special type- of the late 1920s, the British `Tribal- class, German `Narviks-, and the interwar Franco-Italian rivalry that produced some of the fastest of all super destroyers. By the end of the Second World War only the largest designs seemed adequate, so although built in quantity the US _Gearing_ class were effectively
