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HMS PRINCE OF WALES in Singapore
HMS PRINCE OF WALES in Singapore

HMS PRINCE OF WALES in Singapore

Date1941
Object numberANMS0301[007]
NamePhotograph
MediumSilver gelatin print
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionBattleship HMS PRINCE OF WALES in Singapore, December 1941. HistoryHMS PRINCE OF WALES was a King George V class battleship, launched in 1939 and immediately put into service at the outbreak of WWII in September of that year. On 24 May 1941, HMS PRINCE OF WALES, the battlecruiser HOOD and six destroyers were involved in the Battle of the Denmark Strait with the German ships PRINZ EUGEN and BISMARCK. The result of this encounter saw HOOD, the largest battlecruiser in the world at the time, sunk with the death of over 1400 men. PRINCE OF WALES, damaged, retired to Iceland and then Scotland for repairs. On 25 October PRINCE OF WALES and a destroyer escort headed to Singapore where they met with the battlecruiser REPULSE and the aircraft carrier INDOMITABLE. On 2 December the fleet docked in Singapore with PRINCE OF WALES acting as the flagship of Force Z. In the late morning of 10 December, while investigating the supposed landing of the Japanese at Kuantan in Malaya, the British ships came under sustained Japanese air attack. By early afternoon both REPULSE and PRINCE OF WALES had been sunk with the loss of nearly 1000 men. SignificanceThe PRINCE OF WALES became one of the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air attack on the open sea. The loss shocked the world already reeling by the events at Pearl Harbor and reiterated the shifting power of sea to air attacks in this new world war.