Sinking of HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales

Unit/ Formation: HM Ships

Location: Malaysia

Period/ Conflict: World War II

Year: 1941

Date/s: 10 December 1941

The British BattleShips HMS Prince of Wales and Battlrcruiser HMS Repulse were the central elements of Force Z, tasked with intercepting a Japanese invasion fleet.

The objective of Force Z, which consisted of the battleship HMS Prince of Wales, the Battlecruiser HMS Repulse and four destroyers, was to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet in the South China Sea north of Malaya. The task force sailed without air support. Although the British had a close encounter with Japanese heavy surface units, the force failed to find and destroy the main convoy. On their return to Singapore they were discovered by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes they came under a relentless attack in which they were both sunk.

attleships HMS Prince of Wales (above) & Repulse (below) leaving Singapore on 8 December 1941 for their final cruise. Both were sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December.

Having sailed without any air support, Force Z was attacked in open waters and had its two largest warships sunk by long-range torpedo bombers. Along with the attack on Pearl Harbor only two days earlier, this illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against even the heaviest of naval assets if they were not protected by air cover.

Approximately 270 Royal Marines served aboard the two ships; over 60 were killed in the sinking.

“I thought they were heroes,” an able seaman later commented, “because they fought non-stop and there were shell cartridges lying all over. They were kicking these over the side into the sea… they never stopped firing right up to the end.”

HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse under attack

When the end came, aboard HMS Prince of Wales, turret captain Sgt Terry Brooks, the youngest sergeant in the Corps, ordered his men to remove their boots, inflate their rubber life jackets and jump into the sea. After going below to the ship’s magazine to bring out three more of his men, Sgt Brooks too plunged overboard. The escorting destroyers picked up survivors and returned them to Singapore.

HMS ‘Repulse,’ at bottom right, and HMS ‘Prince of Wales’ under Japanese air attack on Dec. 10, 1941. Photo via the National Museum of the U.S. Navy

Cecil Brown was a journalist on board HMS Repulse:

Men are running all along the deck of the ship to get further astern. The ship is lower in the water at the stern and their jump therefore will be shorter. Twelve Royal Marines run back too far, jump into the water and are sucked into the propeller. The screws of the Repulse are still turning. There are five or six hundred heads bobbing in the water. The men are being swept astern because the Repulse is still making way and there’s a strong tide here, too.

The crew of the sinking Prince of Wales abandoning ship to the destroyer Express. Moments later, the list on Prince of Wales suddenly increased and Express had to withdraw. The barrels of the 5.25 in guns were unable to depress far enough to engage attackers due to the list.

Over 60 Royal Marines were killed during this action (approx: POW 24/ Repluse 38), many of the survivors were killed during the rearguard action in Singapore or died on Hell Ships or as Prisoners of War.

All hands on deck. Prepare to abandon ship.” There is a pause for just an instant, then: “God be with you. Captain Tennant, HMS Repulse

Survivors from Prince of Wales and Repulse in the water as a destroyer moves in for the rescue.

Read more 'dits' here;

• Plymouth Argyll Royal Marines - Fall of Singapore

• Maurice Pink, Dunkirk, Hunt for the Bismark, Sinking of Repulse, Escape from Singapore and Anzio