Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse

10 December 1941, Off Kuantan, Malaya

Japanese victory

Prince of Wales and Repulse had been sent to Singapore to deter Japan, without the carrier meant to go with them. When Japan landed in Malaya, Admiral Tom Phillips took them north as Force Z to attack the invasion convoys, without air cover. He found nothing, turned back towards a false report of a landing at Kuantan, and on the morning of 10 December was found by 85 land-based bombers and torpedo bombers flying from Saigon. A torpedo early in the attack wrecked Prince of Wales's propeller shaft and flooded her machinery. Repulse dodged some nineteen torpedoes before more hit her from both sides, and she capsized. Prince of Wales sank an hour later. 840 men died, Phillips among them; the destroyers rescued over 2,000. Japan lost three aircraft. They were the first capital ships sunk by aircraft alone while under way at sea. Churchill wrote that in all the war he never received a more direct shock.