Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
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| Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse | |||||||
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| Part of World War II, Pacific War | |||||||
 Prince of Wales (left, front) and Repulse (left, behind) under attack by Japanese planes. A destroyer - Express or Electra - is in the foreground. |
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| Combatants | |||||||
| United Kingdom | Japan | ||||||
| Commanders | |||||||
| Sir Tom Phillips† | N. Nakanishi, Shichizo Miyauchi |
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| Strength | |||||||
| 1 battleship, 1 battlecruiser, 4 destroyers |
88 planes (34 torpedo planes, 51 level bombers, 3 scouting aircraft) |
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| Casualties | |||||||
| 840 killed; 1 battleship and 1 battlecruiser sunk |
18 killed 3 aircraft shot down 1 aircraft destroyed on landing 27 aircraft damaged 2 scouting aircraft lost |
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| Pacific campaigns 1941-42 |
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| Pearl Harbor – Thailand – Malaya – Wake – Hong Kong – Philippines – Dutch East Indies – New Guinea – Singapore – Australia – Indian Ocean – Doolittle Raid – Solomons – Coral Sea – Midway |
| South-East Asian campaign |
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| Malaya – Prince of Wales & Repulse – Thailand – Singapore – Indian Ocean – Andaman Islands – Burma – Chindits – Imphal – Kohima – Central Burma – Dracula |
The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse was a World War II naval engagement which illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against naval forces that were not protected by air cover and the resulting importance of including an aircraft carrier in any major fleet action.
The action took place east of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang where the British battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse were attacked by Imperial Japanese Navy land-based torpedo bombers. Both ships had arrived in Singapore in December 1941, to serve as a deterrent to Japanese aggression. The original plan had been for a larger fleet which included the Illustrious class aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable.
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[edit] Background
What was then designated as Force G , consisting of the modern battleship Prince of Wales, the World War I era battlecruiser Repulse, and the four destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Encounter, and HMS Jupiter, arrived at Singapore on 2 December, 1941. They were then re-designated Force Z. They spent a few days there with shore leave and refit, while waiting for orders. On 1 December, it was announced that Sir Tom Phillips had been promoted to full Admiral, and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet. A few days later, Repulse started on a trip to Australia with the HMAS Vampire, and HMS Tenedos, but the force was recalled to Singapore to assemble for possible operations against the Japanese. Also at Singapore were the light cruisers HMS Durban, HMS Danae, HMS Dragon, and HMS Mauritius, and the destroyers HMS Stronghold, Encounter, and Jupiter. The heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, Dutch light cruiser Java, 2 more British destroyers (Scout and Thanet), and 4 United States destroyers (Whipple, John D. Edwards, Edsall, and Alden) would be there within 3 days.
[edit] The battle
Early in the morning of 8 December (Singapore time), Singapore came under attack by Japanese aircraft. Prince Of Wales and Repulse shot back with anti-aircraft fire; no planes were shot down, and the ships sustained no damage. The Japanese invaded Malaya on 8 December 1941 (Singapore time), and the British land forces were hard pressed. A naval force was quickly assembled to intercept and destroy Japanese convoys in the South China Sea. Force Z, consisting of the Prince of Wales, Repulse, Electra, Express, Vampire, and Tenedos, sailed from Singapore at 1710 on 8 December. Durban and Stronghold were also available, but Admiral Philips decided to leave them at Singapore because they were not as fast as the other units. Additionally, Danae, Dragon, Mauritius, Encounter, and Jupiter were also at Singapore, but were under repair and not ready to sail. The commander of the fleet, Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, knew the local Royal Air Force unit could not guarantee air cover for his ships as they were equipped with limited numbers of ageing fighters and their airfields were threatened by the Japanese land attacks. He elected to proceed anyway because he thought that Japanese forces could not operate so far from land. He also thought that his ships were relatively immune from fatal damage via air attack, since up to that point, no capital ship at sea had ever been sunk by air attack. The largest unit which had been sunk by aircraft alone up to this time was a heavy cruiser.
At 0713 on 9 December, Force Z passed the Anamba Islands to the east, and turned to a new course of 330 degrees, later changing to 345 degrees. Force Z was spotted by Japanese submarine I-65 at 1400 on 9 December, which shadowed the British ships for five hours, radioing their positions. The British ships were unaware that they were being shadowed by the submarine. After this report, Vice Admiral Ozawa, in command of the invasion force, ordered most of his warships to escort the empty transports back to Cam Ranh Bay in Indo-China. About 1730, just a half hour before sunset, the force was spotted by 3 AICHI E13A seaplanes (Jake), which had been catapulted off of cruisers escorting the transports. These aircraft continued shadowing until sunset (1809 hrs local time). At about 1830, Tenedos was detached to return to Singapore, because of her limited fuel capacity.
[edit] Return to Singapore
That night, one of the Japanese search aircraft dropped a flare over one of the Japanese ships by mistake. After this, the Japanese cruiser force turned away to the northeast. The flare was also seen by the British force, which then turned away to the southeast. At this point, the forces were approximately 5 miles apart, but did not sight each other, and the Japanese force was not picked up on the radar of the Prince Of Wales. At 2055, Admiral Philips cancelled the operation, and ordered the force to return to Singapore. On the way back, they were spotted and reported by the Japanese submarine I-58. I-58 reported that it had fired 5 torpedoes and missed, and then lost sight of the force 3 hours later. The British force did not see the torpedoes, and never knew they had been attacked.
[edit] The Japanese air attack
The next morning, 10 December, they received a report of Japanese landings at Kuantan, a town on the east coast of Malaya, halfway between Singapore and Kota Bharu. Force Z headed in that general direction. At 0515, objects were spotted on the horizon. Thinking that they were the invasion force, Force Z turned towards them. They turned out to be a trawler towing barges. At 0630, Repulse reported seeing an aircraft shadowing the ships. At 0718, Prince Of Wales catapulted off a Supermarine Walrus reconnaissance aircraft. The aircraft flew to Kuantan, saw nothing, reported back to Prince Of Wales, and flew to Singapore. Express was sent to investigate the area, finding nothing. At 1005, Tenedos reported that she was being attacked by Japanese aircraft, about 140 miles southeast of Force Z. The attack was by nine 'Nell' twin-engined medium bombers from the Genzan Air Corps from the 22nd Air Flotilla based at Saigon which were armed with one 500 kg (1,102 lb) armor-piercing bomb. But they mistook the destroyer for a battleship and wasted their attack with all bombs scoring no hits. At 1015, more Japanese aircraft spotted the ships, after Force Z failed to find any Japanese invasion forces, and was heading back south.
At 1113 hours, the fleet was attacked by three waves of Japanese planes the first being the high-level bombers from the Mihoro Air Corps which was made up of 17 Nell bombers with 500 kg (1,102 lb) bombs, as well as eight Nells with two 225 kg (500 lb) bombs. They scored just one hit on the hangar deck area of the Repulse, which started a small fire. Then at about 1140 hours came the first of the torpedo bombers making up of 16 Nells from the Genzan Air Corps. Prince Of Wales suffered one hit leading to flooding and loss of steerage and power to some of the turrets. Another high altitude attack by bombers aimed at the Repulse passed without damage. A second attack by eight torpedo bombers from the Mihoro Air Corps attacked the Repulse from two directions. But she avoided all the torpedoes and continued to steam. The third and final attack by 26 'Betty' torpedo bombers from the Kanoya Air Corps, a detachment from the 21st Air Flotilla also based near Saigon, struck from several directions. Repulse was hit by four more torpedoes in this attack, the first jamming the rudder. The Captain ordered the crew overboard, the Repulse listed heavily to port over a period of about six minutes, finally rolling over and sinking at 1223.
Prince Of Wales was hit by at least six torpedoes, one hit in particular from the second attack causing fatal damage. An unseen torpedo struck her aft on the port side near the A-bracket of the port-outer shaft. This caused the shaft to dislodge and, still spinning at high speed before it could be stopped, it tore through much of the internal supports and bulkheads that sealed the shaft tunnel. Water rushed in through the damaged passage, flooding 'B' engine room, 'Y' boiler room, the central auxiliary machinery room, 'Y' action machinery room, the port diesel dynamo room and a number of compartments aft. This single hit had three crippling effects. Firstly, it caused a 10 degree list to port, jamming the 5.25-inch turrets and meaning that those on the port side were unable to depress low enough to engage the attackers. Secondly, it denied Prince of Wales much of her auxiliary electrical power that was vital for internal communications, ventilation, the steering gear and pumps and that the 5.25-inch and 2-pounder gun mountings relied on to train and elevate. All but S1 and S2 5.25 inch turrets were almost unmanagable, a factor compounded by the list, their crews unable even to drag them round manually using chains. The crews also had difficulty bringing the heavy 2-pounder mountings into manual operation. Thirdly, the extensive internal flooding and shaft damage left the ship under power of only the starboard engines and able to make only 15 knots at best, and with her electric steering unresponsive the ship was virtually unmaneuverable. She was still able to fire at a high level bombing attack with S1 and S2 turrets at 12:41, the bombs straddling her but not penetrating the deck armour. HMS Express came alongside to take off wounded and non-fighting crew. The order to abandon ship was then given she capsized to port and sank at 1318.
The Japanese had achieved 11 hits out of 49 torpedoes launched and three Japanese aircraft were shot down during the attack. One Nell torpedo bomber from the Genzan Air Group, and two Betty torpedo bombers from the Kanoya Air Group. The air cover assigned to Force Z, Brewster Buffalos of the Australian No. 453 Squadron, arrived over the force just as the Prince Of Wales sank.
[edit] After the action
The destroyers Electra and Vampire moved in to rescue survivors of Repulse, while Express rescued survivors of the Prince Of Wales. 840 sailors were lost, 513 on Repulse and 327 on Prince Of Wales. Even after they were rescued, some survivors of the Repulse manned Action Stations on Electra, to free the Electra sailors to rescue more survivors. In particular, Repulse gunners manned the 'X' and 'Y' 4.7-inch (120 mm) mounts, and the ship's dentist of the Repulse even assisted the Electra's medical teams with the wounded. In total, nearly 1,000 survivors of the Repulse were rescued, of which Electra saved 571. Vampire rescued 9 officers, 213 ratings, and 1 civilian war correspondent from Repulse, and 2 sailors from Prince Of Wales. Admiral Phillips and Captain John Leach, Captain of the Prince Of Wales, were among the lost. Captain Tennant of the Repulse was rescued by Vampire. The senior survivor of Prince Of Wales was Lt Cdr A. G. Skipwith, the ship's First Lieutenant, who was rescued by Express. Three Japanese planes were shot down, and 1 more was so damaged that it crashed on landing.
On the way back to Singapore with the survivors, Express passed the Stronghold and the 4 American destroyers heading north. Express signalled that the action was over, but the ships continued on and searched the area where the 2 large ships sank, looking for more survivors. None were found. While returning to Singapore from this search, Edsall boarded the fishing trawler that was towing boats that was sighted by Force Z that morning. The trawler was identified as the Shofu Fu Maru, and was taken to Singapore where the crew was interned.
[edit] Effects of the sinking
The two ships were the first capital ships actively defending themselves to be sunk solely by airpower on the open sea. This defeat drove home to the Allies the necessity of aircraft carriers to protect naval forces from aerial attack which made the new ship class the predominant one in naval warfare for the rest of the war, and many years thereafter.
Prime Minister Winston S. Churchill later said of this event, “In all of the war I have never received a more direct shock."
The wrecks of the two ships were found after the war, Repulse in 183 feet (56 m) of water, and Prince of Wales in 223 feet (68 m). Both are in a nearly upside-down position. Buoys were attached to the propeller shafts, and flags of the Royal Navy are attached to the lines and are regularly changed by divers. The Royal Navy still considers the wrecks to be Crown property. The Prince of Wales' bell was removed from the wreck in 2002 in response to fears that it would be stolen by unauthorised divers and is now on display at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.
[edit] References
- Richard Hough, The Hunting of Force Z: the brief, controversial life of the modern battleship and its tragic close with the destruction of the "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse".
- Martin Middlebrook and Patrick Mahoney, Battleship: The Sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, (Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1979). Contains details of the attack and damage sustained, and tables of survivors and losses.
- Samuel Eliot Morison, History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume III, "The Rising Sun in the Pacific".
- Horodyski, Joseph M. “British Gamble In Asian Waters.” Military Heritage. December 2001. Volume 3, No. 3: 68-77 (sinking of the British battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse by Japanese on 10 December 1941 upon U.S. entry into World War Two).
- Jack Greene, War at Sea, Pearl Harbor to Midway, 1988. (The Malayan Campaign). Combined Books. ISBN 0-8317-1257-0.
- V. E. Tarrant, King George V class Battleships, Arms and Armour Press, 1991, ISBN 1-8540-9524-2
- Alan Matthews, Sailors' Tales: Life Onboard HMS Repulse During World War Two ISBN 0-9531217-0-4
