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Royal Navy
Force ‘Z’
The Sinking of the ‘Prince of Wales’ and ‘Repulse’
Compiled by Ronnie Taylor
The battleship, H.M.S. Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser HMS Repulse arrived at Singapore on 2nd December. This was to be Churchill’s deterrent to the Japanese Navy, called Force ‘Z’ and commanded by Admiral Tom S.V. Phillips. Unfortunately no aircraft carrier was available to join Force ‘Z’. It has often been mentioned that the lack of air cover to the Force was due to HMS Indomitable running aground. However whilst Indomitable may have been earmarked for the Far East she never received orders to deploy there. She ran aground in the West Indies on the 4th November 1941, had she not done so it still didn't leave her enough time to reach Singapore before Force ‘Z’ sailed.
Prince of Wales Arriving Singapore December 1941
Image: IWM (A 6785)
HMS Repulse
The HMS Repulse had four ‘Supermarine Walrus’ aircraft, but lacked modern anti-aircraft weapons. Her horizontal armour plating for protection against an air attack was considered outdated.
Vice-Admiral Sir Geoffrey Layton, K C B , D S O, relinquished command of the China Station, which included Force ‘Z’, to Admiral Sir Tom S V Phillips, KCB , at 0800GH on the 8th December, 1941, having been decided by the Admiralty to merge the command of the China Station with the Eastern Fleet.
After Japan had attacked Malaya on the 8th December 1941, a meeting of Force ‘Z’ took place, the reasons are not known but it was decided to leave Singapore harbour at 1735 hours with four destroyers. Most likely it was because there was no air cover in the harbour and Tom Philips thought Force ‘Z’ would not be so venerable at sea.
Force ‘Z’ consisted of:-
‘Prince of Wales’ (Captain J. C. Leach, M.V O., D.S.O., R.N.) flying the flag of Admiral Sir Tom S. V. Phillips K.C.B,
‘Repulse’ (Captain W. G. Tennant, C B., M.V O , R.N)
‘Electra’ (Commander C. W. May, R.N.)
‘Express’ (Lieutenant Commander F. J Cartwright, R.N.)
‘H.M.A.S. Vampire’ (Commander W. T. A Moran, R. A. N).
‘Tenedos’ (Lieutenant R. Dyer R.N.)
‘Jupiter’ and ‘Encounter’ were under repair and ‘Stronghold’ had to be used for meeting a division of U.S. destroyers expected at Singapore pm. 9th December. No Aircraft Carrier was available to cover Force ‘Z’ so Supermarine Walrus were to be used for reconnaissance after being catapulted from Repulse.
‘Durban’ was available but the Commander-in-Chief, decided not to take her.
Force ‘Z’ sailed at 1735 on 8th December.
Information about the Japanese Navy off Singgora and Kota Bharuwas was filtering through as Tom Phillips set out for the Gulf of Siam to intercept the Japanese Navy, but he was relying on the RAF giving Force ‘Z’ air cover.
It was the intention of Admiral Tom Phillips that Force ‘Z’ would attack Japanese transports and warships which had been reported early on the 8th December to be landing troops on the east coast of the Kra Isthmus and at Kota Bharu.
‘Japanese Attack’ on the Thailand/Malaya Border
On the 9th December he was informed that the northern airfields had been lost and the RAF fighters were not able to give him any cover. The weather was overcast and Tom Philips decided to chance his luck in not being spotted, so he set his course north. At 2015 hours the skies cleared and he was spotted by enemy planes, with all hope of surprise lost he decided to turn back for Singapore.
It was now that he received information of a Japanese landing at Kuantan so he altered course again at 0100 hours on the 9th December and as a security precaution he did not inform Singapore of his change of plans. Early in the morning Japanese submarines spotted and shadowed Force ‘Z’, sending information back to Admiral Kondo of the Japanese Navy. Kondo ordered the 7th Cruiser Squadron to sail southwest and intercept Force ‘Z’ and Rear Admiral Matsunga had the 22nd Air Flotilla load their aircraft with torpedoes. The battleships were too fast for the Japanese Navy to catch so Kondo planned to use the aircraft for a dawn attack.
Force ‘Z’ reached Kuantan at 0800 hours but found no Japanese attack and decided to search along the coast, at 1000 hours reports of enemy aircraft were received and by 1100 hours Japanese Betty bombers could be seen from the decks of Force ‘Z’.
Japanese Betty Bombers
Tom Philips ordered battle stations and began to take evasive action, but the Prince of Wales was hit and veered to port with two big explosions she went out of control with her propeller shafts stopping.
At 1210 hours the Prince of Wales was seen not to be in control and Captain Tennant closed Repulse, reducing to 20 knots, to see if he could be of any assistance. As Repulse was closing, 25 torpedo carrying Betty Bombers were sighted low on the horizon on the starboard bow of the Repulse.
When about three miles distant, the Betty Bombers split into two formations. The right-hand one attacked the Repulse from the starboard side, skimming over the water, they dropped their torpedoes at about 2500 yards range. Captain Tennant, anticipating this, had already started to manoeuvre Repulse to starboard, avoiding the four torpedo tracks. The left hand formation which was making straight for the Prince of Wales suddenly turned when to abaft of the Repulse’s port beam and headed straight for Repulse, dropping their torpedoes when about 2,000 yards on her port beam. This made avoiding action impossible, as to avoid this attack would place Repulse back in line of the torpedoes from the first attack. One torpedo hit Repulse amidships on the port side but did little damage, still allowing Repulse to continue at about 25 knots.
Fresh waves of Betty torpedo bombers then attacked the Repulse from several directions. At 1226 hours Repulse had shot down two Betty Bombers before a torpedo jammed her steering gear. This left Repulse vulnerable and was almost immediately hit by three torpedoes abreast of the superstructure, two simultaneously on the port side and one on the starboard side.
Prince of Wales and Repulse
Middle left in Photo - Attacked by Japanese Betty Bombers
Bottom right - HMS Express Manoeuvres
Turning 90 degree to starboard, Repulse was now in a parallel course with the Prince of Wales. Captain Tennant knew that the end of Repulse was near and gave the order for everyone to come on deck and to cast loose the Carley floats. Captain Tennant ordered his crew on deck, he later wrote:-
‘Men were now pouring up on deck. They had been warned twenty-four hours before to carry or wear their lifesaving apparatus. When the ship had a thirty-degree list to port I looked over the starboard side of the bridge and saw the commander and two or three hundred men collecting on the starboard side. I never saw any sign of panic or ill discipline. I told them from the bridge how well they had fought for the ship and wished them good luck. The ship hung on for at least a minute and a half to two minutes with a list of about 60 to 70 degrees to port and then rolled over at 1233 hours.’
At 1233 hours Repulse sank, in approximate position 3-43N, 104-24½, according to HMS Vampire.There were 1,240 men with 69 officers on board the Repulse, 754 men and 42 officers were picked up by destroyers the rest were died.
 The Prince of Wales was still going north but by 1300 hours she began to settle and Captain Leach gave the order to abandon ship.
The HMS Express pulled alongside the starboard side of the Prince of Wales and took off the wounded.
Admiral Tom Philips and Captain Leach went down with the ship and so did 300 men and twenty officers. Later when the squadron of Buffaloes arrived from Singapore to give Force ‘Z’ air cover, the sea was littered with wreckage and men.
HMS Electra, HMS Express and HMS Vampire sailed back to Singapore after rescuing as many as possible from the sea.
Admiral Layton assumed command of the Eastern Fleet at about 1500GH on the 10th December, 1941.
Later it was found Kuantan was never being attacked, was it the Japanese themselves who spread the rumour to lure Force ‘Z’ into an attack, or just a rumour that started and was never confirmed.
Supermarine Walrus
HMS Stronghold searched the area and recovered a Supermarine Walrus which had been catapulted from Repulse prior to her sinking. It was towed back to Singapore.
The returning Royal Marines from the Prince of Wales then joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in Singapore, as the Plymouth Argyll“s.
Information
Proofread by Tim Lloyds
Malaya and Singapore
Z Force
Commonwealth War Graves
London Gazette
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