title: Fighting Flotilla: RN Laforey Class Destroyers in World War II
author:  Peter C. Smith 
description: Peter C. Smith is well-known to aviation and maritime history readers. He has written over 67 previously published books. Amongst these are Skua, Detroyer Leader, Into the Minefields and Naval Warfare in the English Channel 1939-1945, all published by Pen &amp; Sword.
zlib_text: Destroyer 121: A Pound of Prevention ����������������������
  
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  Destroyer 121: A Pound of Prevention
  
  By Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir
  
  PROLOGUE
  
  In the glory days of the great Luzu Empire, on the fringes of what would one
  day become East Africa, before the final encroachment of Europeans, which
  would change the face of the continent for centuries to come, before the
  bloody Boer Wars and the countless deaths that they would bring, the people of
  the tribe of the mighty Luzu chief Kwaanga met in ceremony on the shores of
  the great azure sea.
  
  The day was warm, not hot, the sky as clear as glass and as blue as the smooth
  waters of the sea that stretched out boldly to the horizon. At some distant
  point, sea snatched sky from the heavens and clutched it firmly to its
  undulating bosom.
  
  In the center of the small bay--barely an inleta sleek, strange ship from some
  distant land lay at anchor. The wooden vessel bobbed lazily on the gentle
  waves that rolled toward the san