The loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse paved the way for Japanese forces to make a successful run on Malaya and Singapore.
Most people remember December 7 as “Pearl Harbor Day.” That was the day of infamy, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt described it, in which the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) successfully launched a surprise attack against the US Navy’s base on the Hawaiian Islands, annihilating the Navy’s battleship fleet and freeing Japan to launch a large-scale offensive across the Pacific.
What few Americans remember is that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was part of a larger series of offensives the Japanese military undertook against both the United States and the British Empire. Indeed, on the same day, Japan launched its war against other European powers as well, notably Britain and the Netherlands. From Pearl Harbor to the Philippines, and eventually from Malaya to Singapore, the Japanese unleashed a wave of chaos intended to diminish both the American and British presences in Asia—all while elevating Japan’s so-called “Co-Prosperity Sphere.”
At the same time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, they attacked British-held Singapore. That region was described by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as an “impregnable fortress.” Shortly after he made those comments, the Japanese Army marched into British-held Singapore and took control of it. Part of that offensive involved the IJN successfully attacking—and sinking—the British Royal Navy’s battleship, the HMS Prince of Wales.
The Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship and numbered among the most advanced battleships in the Royal Navy’s fleet. Armed with ten 14-inch guns and equipped with modern radar and anti-aircraft defenses, she was designed to counter the growing threat of German and Japanese naval power. By late 1941, the war in Europe was intensifying, and Japan’s imperial ambitions in Asia were becoming impossible to ignore.
Defending Britain’s Colonial Interests in the Far East
The British, concerned about protecting their colonial interests in Malaya, Singapore, and the Far East, deployed the Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse as part of Task Force Z to deter further Japanese aggression and expansion.
London’s decision to send Task Force Z, under the command of Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, was controversial. Singapore, a key British stronghold, was seen as the linchpin of defense in the region, but the Royal Navy was already stretched thin by commitments in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Task Force Z lacked sufficient air cover, as the aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable, originally intended to accompany the force, had run aground and was unavailable. This left Prince of Wales and Repulse vulnerable to Japan’s formidable air forces, which were highly trained and equipped with effective torpedo and bomber aircraft.
While the IJN assaulted Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces attacked Malaya, aiming to seize British and Dutch colonial territories rich in resources, like rubber and oil. Admiral Phillips, aware of the Japanese landings, decided to sortie Task Force Z from Singapore on December 8, 1941, to disrupt the Japanese invasion convoys. His strategy relied upon the element of surprise and the assumption that his ships’ anti-aircraft defenses could successfully fend off any aerial attacks.
Unfortunately, Japanese reconnaissance aircraft spotted Task Force Z on December 9, and the element of surprise was lost. Phillips, realizing the convoys were out of reach and under pressure from potential Japanese air attacks, decided to return to Singapore. Unbeknownst to him, Japanese air forces based in Indochina were already mobilizing. The 22nd Air Flotilla, equipped with Mitsubishi G3M and G4M bombers armed with torpedoes and bombs, had been dispatched to locate and destroy the British warships.
The Battle That Destroyed Britain’s Far East Empire
The morning of December 10, 1941, as Task Force Z was approximately 50 miles off the Malayan coast, Japanese warplanes intercepted the ship. This is altogether too sterile of a description. Waves upon waves of Japanese warplanes attacked the mighty Prince of Wales. Lacking adequate fighter screens of their own, their surface warships too few in number to provide sufficient anti-aircraft defense against the kind of numbers the Japanese put up against the Prince of Wales, the outcome of the battle that began at 11 am local time was all but a fait accompli.
Both the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were not just subjected to aerial bombardment, they were made to endure a seemingly ceaseless fusillade of Japanese torpedo attacks. And contrary to how the Anglo-American militaries had viewed the Japanese in the interwar period, the Japanese attackers of the iconic Prince of Wales proved themselves to be extremely adept fighters in the art of modern warfare. The Japanese seamlessly merged their culture’s severe warrior ethos with the machines and bombs of their arsenal—to devastating effect.
The relatively ancient warship, HMS Repulse, was the first to succumb to the Japanese onslaught. She sank only 90 minutes after the engagement began. 508 crewmembers from the Repulse were lost with the old warship. Despite being a newer, larger ship, with modern systems, the Prince of Wales met a similar fate. Early in the battle, she had been struck along her port side by a Japanese torpedo—damaging her propeller shaft, debilitating her ability to maneuver, and causing severe flooding onboard.
The inability to adequately maneuver had the knock-on effect of giving the successive waves of Japanese attackers a relatively easy target. Additional torpedo and bomb hits overwhelmed the Prince of Wales’ defenses. By 1:20pm, two hours and 20 minutes after the battle initiated, Prince of Wales capsized and sank, taking 327 crewmembers, including Admiral Phillips and Captain John Leach, with her to her watery grave.
The destroyers HMS Electra, Express, and Vampire rescued the survivors, but the loss of both capital ships to an enemy most of the British Royal Navy viewed as technologically and culturally inferior to that of the British Empire was a devastating blow to British morale and prestige. Just as in Pearl Harbor, the Japanese attackers suffered minimal losses compared to the British task force they went against, with very few Japanese planes being shot down or even damaged.
When the Plane Trumped the Battleship
As an aside, the Japanese attacks at Pearl Harbor and their successful sinking of the mighty Prince of Wales and her older escort, HMS Repulse, was a reminder of how correct the controversial US Army Air Corps Colonel Billy Mitchell had been during the interwar years—earning the undying enmity of his fellow officers as a result. During that time, Mitchell proved in a wargame scenario that warplanes could easily knockout battleships.
Neither the American nor British naval leaderships wanted to acknowledge this fact, favoring their precious battleships as the pinnacle of naval power—rather than accepting the brutal reality that tiny airplanes operating in swarms can overwhelm even the most sophisticated warships. As an aside, this has remarkable parallels to how the Chinese, Russians, Iranians, North Koreans, and even the Houthis today are dominating the creation of advanced drone swarms to threaten American aircraft carriers and other US surface warships.
Interestingly, the British had already experienced a massive blow to their morale eight months earlier, at the hands of the German Kriegsmarine, when the HMS Hood was sunk by the German warship Bismarck. The HMS Prince of Wales had been involved in that battle against Germany’s Bismarck. When the Hood was lost with all but three of her sailors, British morale and prestige shifted toward the Prince of Wales. Eight months later, after her sinking by the Japanese, British morale was obliterated for a second time.
The Fall of Singapore Was a Catastrophe for Britain
The loss of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse paved the way for Japanese forces to make a successful run on Malaya and Singapore. In February 1942, the fall of Singapore is remembered as a catastrophic defeat for the Allies, undermining Britain’s strategic position in the Pacific, and boosting Japanese momentum in the early stages of the war.
Indeed, the loss of the Prince of Wales was the British Pearl Harbor in many respects—although the Japanese were far more successful in their attack on the British than they were in their attack on the Americans. Ultimately, the United States refloated all but one of the sunken battleships at Pearl Harbor, and used them to devastating effect against the Japanese in the years that followed. But the British position never fully recovered in Asia—especially since their primary focus was understandably on Hitler’s Germany in Europe and North Africa.
The Japanese sinking of the Prince of Wales is considered by many naval historians to be a true turning point in the history of naval warfare. Many assess that this moment was the true end of the age of the battleship and the rise of the aircraft carrier. Unlike the Americans, who were able to turn their vast industrial might against Japan after Pearl Harbor, the British Empire never fully recovered. By 1968, London announced it would no longer maintain its colonial possessions “East of Suez,” and by 1971, its various protectorates in the Middle East and Asia had gained full independence. With a few rare exceptions—notably in 1997 during the British government’s handover of Hong Kong to China—British warships avoided the Far East well into the 21st century. It would not be until 2021 when the new Royal Navy aircraft carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, would sojourn to the Indo-Pacific via the Suez Canal.
About the Author: Brandon J. Weichert
Brandon J. Weichert, a Senior National Security Editor at The National Interest as well as a contributor at Popular Mechanics, who consults regularly with various government institutions and private organizations on geopolitical issues. Weichert’s writings have appeared in multiple publications, including the Washington Times, National Review, The American Spectator, MSN, the Asia Times, and countless others. His books include Winning Space: How America Remains a Superpower, Biohacked: China’s Race to Control Life, and The Shadow War: Iran’s Quest for Supremacy. His newest book, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine is available for purchase wherever books are sold. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.
