Sailors from HMS Prince of Wales have honoured the memory of those lost when the battleship of the same name and the cruiser HMS Repulse were sunk in the South China Sea on 10 December 1941, according to a Royal Navy news update.
The remembrance service marked the first time the Fleet Flagship, currently leading Operation Highmast, has conducted a committal over the wreck sites. Wreaths were placed at sea by UK Commander Carrier Strike Group Commodore James Blackmore, HMS Prince of Wales’ Commanding Officer Captain Will Blackett, and Sub Lieutenant Takumi Kitamura from the Japanese destroyer JS Akebono.
The Royal Navy recounted the history of the 1941 losses, noting that the two capital ships formed part of Force Z, dispatched by Prime Minister Winston Churchill to deter Japanese aggression in the Far East. After Japanese forces landed in Malaya, the ships sailed from Singapore to intercept. On 10 December, just three days after Pearl Harbor, they were attacked by Japanese bombers. Despite evading more than 40 torpedoes, both ships were struck repeatedly and sank following an intense air assault.
HMS Repulse was lost first, with 512 men killed. HMS Prince of Wales followed, with the deaths of 330 crew, including Admiral Tom Phillips and Captain John Leach. Leach was the father of future First Sea Lord Admiral Sir Henry Leach.
The Royal Navy highlighted that the wrecks have been safeguarded since divers recovered their bells 20 years ago to protect them from looting and scrap metal recovery. Both artefacts are now held at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth.
The service took place during Operation Highmast, the Royal Navy’s key deployment of 2025. Led by HMS Prince of Wales, the eight-month mission involves contributions from a dozen nations and around 4,500 British personnel, including sailors, Royal Marines, soldiers, and RAF personnel. The deployment has already passed through the Mediterranean, Middle East and Indian Ocean, with port visits in Singapore and Australia, and has now shifted focus to the wider Indo-Pacific.
The full report can be read on the Royal Navy’s website here.
HMS Repulse was actually a Battle Cruiser.
This is a Good call and probably always planned at some point. RIP.
I do believe even though they are designated war graves, people are still diving on them and taking bits of the ships. I’m not sure what can be done realistically to stop this?
One of the problems has been that steel produced before 1945 is not contaminated by radioactive fallout particles, and hence is valuable for use in sensitive measuring equipment of various kinds, and shipwrecks are a source for this – and heavily armoured warships especially so.
Interestingly there was a well referenced article on here a few months ago stating that wasn’t the case.
That is in spite of relatives developing various radiological devices that did need clean, pre-bomb, steel!
HMS Prince of Wales never had much luck has I believe she was damaged in the engagement with the Bismarck when the pride of RN HMS Hood was sunk .If only Prince of Wales and Repulse had air cover they may of seen more war service .Hopefully her namesake has more luck 🙏 🇬🇧
Despite being a new battleship, not fully worked-up, with dockyard workers still onboard, during the Battle of the Denmark Strait HMS Prince of Wales hit KMS Bismarck with a number of 14inch shells, causing fuel contamination by sea water ingress – and forcing the German Admiral to abandon his commerce-raiding mission and head for the French port of Brest. The British battleship played a big part in Bismarck’s eventual demise.
Good post thank you 🍺
HMS Prince of Wales and the rest of the KG V class always had issues with their 14″ gun turrets.
It was caused by the design compromises made to achieve a high level of armour protection of the ship. They were in fact the most heavily armoured battleships until the Japanese Yamato class. However, the thin armouring of the hull was achieved by reducing the gun caliber and putting relatively thin armour on the turrets tops..! To counter this they designed a very elaborate system of anti-flash hatches between the turrets and magazines. This made for a very complicated loading sequence that went wrong frequently, especially with a partially trained crew. Even the experienced members of the crew would need time to familierise themselves with the new ship systems and drills.
There was also another possible issue with the ammunition turntable (my naming), that I read about somewhere. This was a mechanism immediately below the turret that aligned the for and aft orientated shells onto the same bearing as the gun turret. This was necessary because the hoists were fixed and of course the turrets, rather inconveniently, were usually pointing on one or other broadside. The problem for the KG V was that this mechanism was squeezed into a space that was just a bit too small which led to the mechanism jamming in heavy weather as even a battleship hull would flex slightly. The armour was made up of plates that were bolted or riveted onto the hull which was high grade structural steel, so strictly speaking the the hull was not as thick as the armour would suggest.
So the poorly trained crew, complicated loading cycle and a brand new ship with inevitable issues meant that HMS Prince of Wales was force to withdraw, not much because of damage inflicted, although that was bad enough, but because only 5 of her 10 guns were still active. One was down because of a miss fire, so the drill was that the crew had to sit there for 30 minutes in case one of the cordite bags was smouldering. Opening the breach early could cause any cordite to explode… The other 4 were out because of equipment and drill failures.
Her crew and the civvies on board, non of whom really knew how the ship would perform, went into and stayed in action long enough to do serious damage to the Bismark. It was a brave, and IMPO, much underrated act of determination.
Cheers CR
Very interesting Post mate , I do remember Watching Show called Drain the Oceans a few years back stating that during the Attack the Japanese used some new Type of Torpedo against HMS Prince of Wales . Has for Repulse don’t think much was mentioned. 👍
I believe the torpedo you are referring to would have been the Long Lance torpedo. It was airdropped and tube launched for subs and surface ships I believe. It came as a huge shock to the West as it out classed every other torpedo then in service.
The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales was thoroughly investigated at the time, leading to significant improvement being made to the remaining ships of the KG V class. One problem was that the generators that supplied power to the 5.25″ AA guns were drive by a single power line i.e. it was associated with one propeller shaft, if you will. Unfortunately, the Japanese got just as lucky as we did when we torpedoed the Bismark, more so in fact. They got a hit on the A frame supporting the shaft that also supplied the power for the AA guns. With the A frame damaged the shaft whirled around and did huge damage including putting a hole in the ship.
The thing is the 5.25″ AA guns on the POW were the most powerful AA defence the entire fleet had, so when they went off line..!
Cheers CR
Thanks again mate , Shame the UK government never kept a Battleship after the war year’s has tribute for the nation .I’ve never been able to get my head around why they Scrap HMS Vanguard RN last Battleship even though she miss the war .Sure expensive to keep but still with our maritime history one would of thought some Admiral or Politician etc would of intervened .Well I guess it’s a fight across the pond 🇺🇸 Cheers
Prince of Wales also had a relatively light AA battery compared to KGV’s later in the war. Also worth noting that the KGV’s had 14 inch guns primarily because the UK was arguing for a limit to caliber size in the Naval treaties at the time, and couldn’t realistically be building 16in armed ships while arguing that there should be a 14 inch limit. So it was less “We wanted it to be heavily armoured so we made the guns lighter” and more “We need to have smaller guns so we’ll offset that with heavier armour.” (Also remember they where treaty battleships, so there where weight limits to their design, which Iowas, Bismark, Yamato, Littorio, Vanguard etc didn’t have to abide by).
Agreed Dern,
The treaty that effectively eased to exist because there was a get out clause that said if one broke the terms then the others could respond, if I remember rightly. Unfortunately for the RN they had already started on the KG V class when whispers of the Bismark class and Yamato class started to emerge. Changing the design would introduce too many delays and they desperately needed a modern battleship as they knew they would be fight another major war in the near future. So they set in motion the Vanguard and Lion Class.
The latter occupied 2 or 3 of our biggest slipways for pretty much the entire war! They were scrapped on the slipways. Just goes to show that procurement failures can happen in war time as well.
Cheers CR
They did have air cover is the sad thing. Fighter aircraft from Singapore arrived on the scene only a few minutes after force Z was sunk.
I believe it is well established as a factor and indeed important enough for state actors to be involved in plundering designated war graves. Unfortunately PoW sank in shallow water (around 200 ft) and parts of the hull are only about 150ft below the surface, so she is accessible to those who are not repectful of the wreck status.
Have a read
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/is-pre-nuclear-steel-behind-wwii-ship-targeting/
Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me as I *know* that early WBC’s were made of low background steel for these reasons.
That isn’t the issue main stream press make it out to be. Clean steel is not hard to make, certainly today.
Unfortunately you are right. Only a few weeks ago the Malaysian’s had to chase a way a Chinese salvage ship that was illegally operating over the wrecks and recovering material and artifacts. Apparently – despite the supposed but very limited in practice protection – only a small proportion of the two battleships are now left, indeed I saw a report last year saying that the hulls have now completely “disappeared” after decades of illegal salvage operations to remove the valuable “pre-atomic age” steel and armour. Hopefully that is wrong but I suspected worst.
IT’s Sickening what they do and to think the China want a new Mega Embassy built in London 🙄
In all honesty, taking bits off them is actually opposite to what’s been happening. Both Prince of Wales and Repulse have been extensively salvaged, or more properly put wrecked. Explosives are used and then large barges and grabs are used to rip them apart. Very large parts of the hulls have been torn out. Large survey completed last year i believe, shows massive damage. Also reported that local authorities when investigating found human remains or fragments that had been lifted. They still have them in storage and are awaiting a response from UK in respect of dealing with the situation. Cant see what you can do short of constant patrols. Even then what do you do? Arrest them?, sink them ?? Completely differing mindset out in that part of the woods
Yes Mr Churchill for your total ignorance of the Japanese and they where not stopped attacking Malaya by one battleship and an old battlecruiser.
They were meant to have been supported by HMS Indomitable but she ran aground of Jamaica and didn’t make it but this vey probably saved her from the same fate. Sadly in 1941 we were stretched to braking point and there was very little we could do even if we had better military leadership in the Far East.
A visit to the old naval yard, Kranji cemetery and other locations in Singapore is very sobering and brings home the sacrifices made by many a long way from home.
BTW the Yanks were as dismissive of Japs as we were but a sign of the times but, our defeat and the loss of Singapore signalled the end of the British Empire.
1SL Sur Henry Leach saw his father the last time boarding PoW. He was later instrumental in convincing Margaret Thatcher that the U.K. could and must retake the Falklands in 1982. A great man from an incredible generation.
In fairness, had Prince of Wales and Repulse actually gotten to where they where going they very likely would have stopped the Japanese attack on Malaya. Amphibious landings do not do well when enemy Battleships end up in the middle of the transports.
A fitting and proper tribute for the present POW to its predecessor. I suspect the crew were deeply moved and proud to pay their respects. BZ POW.
While Malaya would’ve fallen anyway. A carrier accompanying those two girls would have made a huge difference. Throw a dozen sea hurricanes into that attack by G3/4Ms and things would have been different. Principally, you can’t make a torpedo run with a fighter on your six.
You think a Amphibious assault would have fared well with a Prince of Wales and Repulse sinking it’s transports?
Also worth remembering that RAF fighter cover did arrive on scene after the ships where sunk, so it’s not even “A carrier would have made the difference,” more “Had the RAF been on the ball it would have made a difference.”
HIS Repulse in the end became a fast Battleship, like her sister.
RIP all those who did not return to shore. We will remember them.