Thomas Phillips (Naval officer)
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Admiral Sir Thomas "Tom" Spencer Vaughan Phillips KCB (1888-1941) had a successful career in the Royal Navy. He was nicknamed "Tom Thumb" owing to his short stature. He is best known for his command of Force Z during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, where he went down with his flagship, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales.
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[edit] Early and private life
Phillips was the son of Colonel Thomas Vaughan Wynn Phillips, Royal Artillery. His mother, Louisa Mary Adeline de Horsey Phillips, was daughter of Admiral Sir Algernon Frederick Rous de Horsey.
[edit] Navy career
He joined the Royal Navy in 1903 as a sea cadet. He became a midshipman in 1904, was promoted to sub-lieutenant in 1907, and to lieutenant in July 1908.
In the First World War, he served on destroyers in the Mediterranean and in the Far East. He attended the staff college for one year from June 1919, and was a military adviser at the League of Nations from 1920 to 1922. He was promoted Commander in June 1921, and Captain in June 1927. In 1932, he was appointed assistant director of the plan division in the Admiralty. In 1938, he was promoted Commodore and in January 1939 Rear Admiral, commanding the destroyer flotillas of the Home Fleet.
From 1 June 1939 until 21 October 1941, Phillips was Deputy and then Vice Chief of the Naval Staff. He gained the confidence of Winston Churchill, who had him appointed Acting Vice Admiral in February 1940. In July 1941, Phillips helped to undermine the credibility of the first Inquiry into the sinking of HMS Hood.
[edit] Force Z
Phillips was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Far East Fleet in late 1941, an action which raised some controversy in the higher echelons of the Royal Navy, where he was considered a "desk admiral". He was appointed Acting Admiral, and he took to sea on 25 October 1941 en route to his headquarters in Singapore. He travelled with a naval detachment then designated as Force G, consisting of his flagship, the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales, together with the veteran World War I era battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and the four destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Encounter, and HMS Jupiter. It was intended that the new aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable would also travel out to Singapore, but she ran around on her maiden voyage in the West Indies, and was not ready to sail from England with the other ships. Phillips and the vessels arrived in Singapore on 2 December 1941, where they were re-designated Force Z.
Without a formal declaration of war, the Japanese landed in Malaya on 8 December 1942, on the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbour (on the other side of the International Date Line). Phillips had long held the opinion that aircraft were no threat to surface ships, and so he took Force Z, consisting of HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Repulse, and four destroyers (HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMAS Vampire and HMS Tenedos) to intercept the Japanese without air cover. He was unable to find the Japanese, but the Japanese submarine I-65 spotted them as they returned to Singapore. Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk by Japanese air attack on 10 December 1941 by 86 Japanese bombers and torpedo bombers from the 22nd Air Flotilla based at Saigon. The destroyers saved 2,081 of the 2,921 crew on the stricken capital ships, but Philips went down 326 other crew from his flagship, including its Captain, John Catterall Leach.
[edit] References
- Mark M. Boatner: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II. - Presidio Press, Novato CA, 1996. – ISBN 0-89141-548-3
- H. G. Thursfield: Phillips, Sir Tom Spencer Vaughan (1888–1941). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. – Oxford und New York, 1959
- Part of this article are based on a translation of the equivalent article of the German Wikipedia, dated 28 September 2006
[edit] External links
- Tom Phillips from the "Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives"
- "Order of Battle/Force Z/10 December 1941 (en.)
- "St Andrew's Cathedral" in Singapore (en.)
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Phillips, Tom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | British Admiral |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 19 February 1888 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pendennis Castle, Falmouth |
| DATE OF DEATH | 10 December 1941 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Kuantan, Malaysia |
| Military Offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Sir Geoffrey Layton |
Commander-in-Chief British Eastern Fleet 1941–1941 |
Succeeded by: Sir Geoffrey Layton |
