HMS Prince of Wales (53)

HMS Prince of Wales (53)

Coordinates: 3°33′36″N 104°28′42″E / 3.56°N 104.47833°E / 3.56; 104.47833

Career (UK)
Class and type: King George V class
Name: Prince of Wales
Ordered: 29 July 1936
Builder: Cammell Laird and Company, Ltd., Birkenhead
Laid down: 1 January 1937
Launched: 3 May 1939
Completed: 31 March 1941
Commissioned: 19 January 1941
Identification: Pennant number: 53
Fate: Sunk on 10 December 1941 by Japanese air attack off Kuantan, South China Sea
General characteristics
Class & type: King George V-class battleship
Displacement: 43,786 tons (deep)
Length: 745 ft 1 in (227.1 m) (overall)
740 ft 1 in (225.6 m) (waterline)
Beam: 103 ft 2 in (31.4 m)
Draught: 34 ft 4 in (10.5 m)
Installed power: 110,000 shp (82,000 kW)
Propulsion: 8 Admiralty 3-drum small-tube boilers
4 sets Parsons geared turbines
Speed: 28.3 knots (52.4 km/h; 32.6 mph)
Range: 15,600 nmi (28,900 km; 18,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement: 1,521 (1941)
Sensors and
processing systems:
Type 279 radar added
Type 284 radar added.
Radars added in May 1941.
4 x Type 282 and Type 285 radars added.
Radar added between June–July 1941.
Type 271 radar added.
Armament: 10 × BL 14-inch (360 mm) Mark VII
16 × QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) Mk. I
32 × QF 2 pdr 1.575-inch (40.0 mm) Mk.VIII
80x UP projectors
Armour: Main Belt: 14.7 inches (370 mm)
Lower belt: 5.4 inches (140 mm)
Deck: 5–6 inches (127–152 mm)
Main turrets: 12.75 inches (324 mm)
Barbettes: 12.75 inches (324 mm)
Bulkheads: 10–12 inches (254–305 mm)
Conning tower: 3–4 inches (76–102 mm).
Aircraft carried: 4 Supermarine Walrus seaplanes, 1 double-ended catapult
Motto: "Ich Dien" – German: "I serve"

HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the battle of Denmark Strait against the Bismarck, operations escorting convoys in the Mediterranean, and her final action and sinking in the Pacific in 1941.

Prince of Wales first encountered the Germans while being outfitted in her drydock, being attacked and damaged by German aircraft. She was heavily involved in the first contact with the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen, and landed 3 hits on Bismarck including two critical hits, one which caused extensive flooding forward, and another which exploded under Bismarck's armour belt causing machinery damage, the combined effected of both hits caused her to make the ill-fated decision to return to port. Prince of Wales suffered heavy damage during the engagement and had to return to Rosyth to be repaired. Prince of Wales transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Newfoundland Conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

On 25 October 1941, Prince of Wales departed for Singapore to join Force Z, a British naval detachment. She docked there on 2 December with the rest of the force, and at 2:11 on 10 December Force Z was dispatched to investigate reports of Japanese landing forces at Kuantan. On arriving there they found the reports to be false. At 11:00 that morning Japanese bombers and torpedo aircraft began their assault on Force Z. In a second attack at 11:30 torpedoes struck Prince of Wales on the port side, wrecking the outer propeller shaft and causing the ship to take on a heavy list. A third torpedo attack developed against Repulse but she managed to avoid all torpedoes aimed at her. A fourth attack by torpedo-carrying Type 1 "Bettys" sank Repulse at 12:33. Six aircraft from this wave attacked Prince of Wales, with four of their torpedoes hitting the ship, causing flooding. Finally a 500 kg bomb hit the catapult deck, penetrated through to the main deck and exploded, tearing a gash in the port side of the hull. At 13:15 the order was given to abandon ship and at 13:20 Prince of Wales sank; Vice-Admiral Tom Phillips and Captain John Leach were among the 327 fatalities.

Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea (albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft), a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.

Read more about HMS Prince of Wales (53):  Construction, Description, Refits