Naval Battle of Malaya

[CluelessTommy]

77 years ago today the King George V class Battleship HMS Prince of Wales was sunk in the South China sea along side the Battlecruiser HMS Repulse.

 

HMS Prince of Wales had only a short service from being completed in march 1941 to being sunk on the 10th of December 1941, however undertook many Different roles:

 

Pursuit of the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, North Sea, May 1941

Transport for churchill, Atlantic, August 1941

Convoy escort, Mediterranean, September 1941

Interception of Japanese forces near malaya, South China Sea, December 1941

 

HMS Repulse Had been in service since August 1916 and had taken part in:

 

Second battle of Heligoland Bight, North sea, November 1917

Special service squadrons round the world cruise, International, 1923-24

Shipping escort during spanish civil war, International, 1936-39

Norwegian campaign, North/norwegian sea, April-June 1940

Troop convoy escort, Atlantic ocean, August-October 1941

 

On the morning of December 10th the Repulse and Prince of wales were looking for Japanese forces related to the landings at Kuantan.

05:15 -They spotted objects on the horizon, thinking these to be japanese troop ships moved towards them, these later turned out to be trawlers.

10:00 -Another british ship the Tenedos reported being under attack from Japanese aircraft.

11:13-HMS Repulse was attacked by bombers suffering only one minor hit.

11:40 -17 enemy bombers attacked both ships, 8 torpedos were launched at the PoW evasive                 action was taken and all but one avoided. It hit the the point where the propeller shaft exited the ship. The turbine was got turning again but as the ship gained speed the water tight gasket failed flooding the rear port side of the ship and causing her to list 11°.

12:20-26 more torpedo bombers attacked the two ships hitting the PoW another 3 times and the Repulse who had dodged 19 torpedos up until this point 4 times in quick succession. Her crew began to abandon ship

12:33-HMS Repulse capsized and sank with the loss of 508 of 967 crew.

12:41-The PoW was still under attack with one bomb going through the deck and hitting the makeshift hospital below. HMS Express pulled alongside the sinking ship and began to take the crew. 327 men were lost.

13:30-Both ships had sunk.

The survivors were rescued by HMS Express and HMAS Vampire

 

Here is a quote from Henry  Leach, son of Captain Leach of the PoW. It shows how both Captain Leach and Captain Tennant understood the dangers of the mission they were undertaking:

https://www.forcez-survivors.org.uk/biographies/princecrew/leach.html

 

Here is the story of the sinking of the Prince of Wales told by R V Ward a survivor of the events that day:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/79/a4217979.shtml

[Fritz]

Very good stories. With the lack of an aircraft carrier escort, the two vessels obviously had no chance against overwelming numbers of attacking aircraft. Why did they send them without support?

[CluelessTommy]

12 hours ago, Fritz said:

Very good stories. With the lack of an aircraft carrier escort, the two vessels obviously had no chance against overwelming numbers of attacking aircraft. Why did they send them without support?

Originally the carrier Illustrious was going to accompany task force Z but it ran aground before the force was assembled. 

No. 453 squadron RAAF was available for close air cover however were not kept in contact and were only called by repulse an hour into the attack.The reasons for this are not known but usually attributed to the fact that no capital ship had ever been lost to an attack from the air before so it was thought that they were to a certain extent invulnerable to fatal damage from air attack. As well as the belief that Japanese planes could not operate effectively so far away from land, many RN officials at the time were in a wre of the quality of Japanese torpedo bombers.

The PoW was also fitted with the most advance anti-air systems at the time with the High Angle Control System which provided long range radar assisted AA fire. The HACS had been used to great effect earlier in August and September 1941. This lead to the belief that PoW was self sufficient against aircraft however due to the heat of Malaya this system was not fully functioning.