The Pittsburgh Press (December 10, 1941)
Planes sink 2 British battleships
Nipponese fliers destroy Repulse, Prince of Wales
British admit 2 battleships sunk by Japs
Churchill tells Commons of heaviest single blow of war
By Edward W. Beattie, United Press staff writer
London, Dec. 10 –
Prime Minister Winston Churchill today gave the House of Commons the “bad news” that two of Britain’s greatest dreadnaughts – HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse – had been lost off Malaya in the heaviest single blow of the war.
The new 35,000-ton Prince of Wales and the 32,000-ton battlecruiser Repulse went down in operations against the Japanese attacking Malaya in a general offensive against the naval base of Singapore, the Prime Minister said.
Authoritative sources said:
This is the heaviest single blow we have received throughout the war. Even Dunkirk was softened by the fact that we extricated the army.
Churchill makes statement
The seriousness of the losses suffered by Britain art a time when the United States Navy had also suffered severely in the Pacific was reflected in the atmosphere in Parliament and on the streets of London.
Newspaper vendors on the streets confined their shouts to “Latest news” and refused to mention British naval losses.
Mr. Churchill’s announcement was brief:
I have bad news for the House, which I thought I should impart at the earliest moment. A report has been received from Singapore that His Majesty’s ships Prince of Wales and Repulse have been sunk whilst carry out operations against the Japanese attack upon Malaya.
Will talk on ‘changes’
No details are yet available except those contained in the Japanese official communiqué which claims both ships were sunk by air attack. I shall take occasion shortly to make short statements on the general war situation which has from many points of view both favorable and adverse undergone important changes in the past few days.
There were indications that the engagement in which the Prince of Wales and Repulse were sunk was more than one between British surface ships and Japanese planes. Residents of Mersing, 100 miles northeast of Singapore, heard heavy gunfire at sea. The German radio broadcast that “the greatest naval battle in history” was in progress in the Pacific.
Japanese Imperial Headquarters, whose communiqué he quoted on the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse, said the British Far Eastern Fleet was sighted near the east coast of Malaya and that Japanese planes immediately went into action.
Tries to escape
The Repulse suffered a direct hit at 2:29 p.m. (2:29 a.m. Tuesday ET) and sank instantly, the communiqué said.
The Prince of Wales, hit direct on its starboard side, tried to escape, listing, but sank at 2:50 p.m. after suffering more hits, it was asserted.
Imperial Japanese Headquarters in Tokyo admitted the loss of two transports and damage to two others today but said no lives had been lost and the army said 18 of its planes had failed to return to their bases.
The Prince of Wales was commanded by Capt. J. C. Leach, and flew the flag of Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, just appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Far Eastern Fleet, the Admiralty communiqué said. The Repulse was commanded by Capt. W. G. Tennant.
There was no immediate news as to the fate of these officers or the remainder of the crews of the Prince of Wales, normally 1,500 officers and men, and the Repulse, normally about 1,200.
The Prince of Wales, newest battleship in the Royal Navy, was a sister ship of the King George V. The two ships were the first of a class of five 35,000-ton battleships which many naval experts held to be almost unsinkable. The Prince of Wales was somewhat different from the King George V, as it was a newer ship, and its design was a close secret.
The Prince of Wales was already famous for having led the attack on the German 35,000-ton battleship Bismarck last May and as having been the ship in which President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill held some of their Atlantic conferences last August.
Sent to bolster Far East
She had just been sent to the Far East, at the head of a powerful fleet, in anticipation of a Japanese attack.
She was damaged in the sinking of the Bismarck.
The Prince of Wales was armed with 10 14-inch guns of a secret design, held to have a greater effective range than earlier 15-inch guns, as her main battery.
In addition she mounted 15 5.25-inch guns, several smaller guns and multiple pom-pom guns.
Her speed was more than 30 knots.
Laid down in January 1937, launched May 1, 1939, she was first reported in commission last April.
Repulse was old ship
The Repulse was a 32,000-ton battlecruiser built in 1916.
The Prince of Wales and Repulse were the third and fourth capital ships Britain had lost in more than two years of war. The others were the battleship Royal Oak, sunk by a submarine Oct. 14, 1939, at Scapa Flow, and the giant battlecruiser Hood, sunk by the Bismarck May 24.
Britain is now left with 13 capital ships with at least three others under construction, namely the Duke of York, the Jellicoe and the Beatty.
It was said in naval quarters that Japan had brought herself a long way toward her goal, a goal she must attain, of naval domination of the Pacific to permit her expansion through rich Dutch, British and American possession s in the corner of the world she seeks for her “greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere.”
By striking at Hawaii, Japan sought to cripple the American fleet there. By attacking Guam, Midway and Wake Islands she tried to remove – and succeeded in removing – all the U.S. stepping stones across the Pacific for its airplanes and warships.
The simultaneous attacks on the Philippines, Hong Kong and Malaya, if successful, would obliterate the Cavite and Singapore naval bases of the U.S. and British Far Eastern fleets.
Had all protection
Japan’s victory off Malaya was one to give pause to naval experts. The Prince of Wales was supposed to embody all modern protective devices. It was understood to carry more than 14,000 tons of armor – nearly one-half its total displacement – and to have 16 inches of armor at its waterline. The old Repulse had been strengthened with anti-bomb decks. The Prince of Wales cost $28 million.
Up to last Sunday, when the Japanese attacked Hawaii, the debate on surface ships against airships had gone in favor of surface ships in the battles of the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The situation was made more serious because of lack of knowledge of Japan’s naval building. It has been reported that Japan was building at least five battleships of 40,000 tons each and that two might be in commission.
More important than the total loss of Allied ships would be the implication of Japanese domination of the Western Pacific – the ability to seize oil and metals and other vital products from Malaya and the East Indies. Without these supplies, it was held here, Japan faces serious if not fatal handicaps.
