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Admiral of the Fleet Sir Philip Vian GCB KBE DSO was a British naval officer best known for the incident early in 1940 when a force under his command released captured British merchant sailors from the German supply ship Altmark in Norway.
He joined the Navy as an officer cadet in May 1907. On passing out from Royal Naval College in 1911, his first ship being the training cruiser Cornwall, the cruise being terminated by an uncharted reef on the east coast of Canada. He next joined the pre-Dreadnought battleship Lord Nelson which was serving with the Atlantic Fleet.
After a period in a cruiser patrolling in East African waters he received an appointment to Morning Star, a Yarrow-built modern destroyer. It was in this ship that he took part in the Battle of Jutland, although the ship played no significant part. Promotion in 1917 resulted in two appointments as First Lieutenant in the destroyers Ossory and Sorceress.
Following a gunnery course he served as Gunnery Officer of Australia then flagship of the Australian station.
On returning to the UK he was given an appointment to Thunderer then serving as a cadet training ship, followed by two appointments to battleships in the Mediterranean Fleet, followed by Kent then flagship of the China Station.
After a shore appointment he was given command of Active in the 3rd Destroyer Flotilla (part of the Mediterranean Fleet).
He was posted Captain in 1934 and expected to spend some time on half-pay. The Abyssinian crisis ended that as a destroyer flotilla was activated from the reserve and he was given command of it.
Return to the UK at the end of that crisis was disturbed by the start of the Spanish Civil War, his ships being involved in the initial evacuation of British citizens from the war zone.
His next appointment was as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral Lionel Wells in Arethusa. Wells commanded the 3rd Cruiser Squadron then part of the Mediterranean Fleet. He returned to the UK just before WWII broke out and was appointed to command of another destroyer flotilla activated from reserve, his own ship being Mackay. This flotilla was based at Liverpool and was tasked with escorting convoys.
Early in 1940 he was moved again, this time to command of the 4th destroyer flotilla, the famous Tribal class destroyers. The leader's ship at the time was Afridi but as she was due for a refit he swapped ships to take over Cossack.
Vian, in HMS Afridi led a small British convoy into Namsos in April 1940 to land British troops as a part of a pincer movement to seize the City of Trondheim in Norway.
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