Aftermath of The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse
After the destruction of the British fleet, the Japanese continued to advance in Malaya. British Lieutenant General Arthur Percival ordered a retreat from Malaya to Singapore on 27 January 1942. On 15 February, Percival surrendered his remaining army of 85,000 British, Indian, and Australian troops to the Japanese, the largest capitulation in British history. Regarding Phillips' decision to proceed without air cover, Naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison wrote:
Those who make the decisions in war are constantly weighing certain risks against possible gains. At the outset of hostilities Admiral Hart thought of sending his small striking force north of Luzon to challenge Japanese communications, but decided that the risk to his ships outweighed the possible gain because the enemy had won control of the air. Admiral Phillips had precisely the same problem in Malaya. Should he steam into the Gulf of Siam and expose his ships to air attack from Indochina in the hope of breaking enemy communications with their landing force? He decided to take the chance. With the Royal Air Force and the British Army fighting for their lives, the Royal Navy could not be true to its tradition by remaining idly at anchor.
Morison wrote, that as a result of the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse:
...he half-truth "Capital ships cannot withstand land-based air power" became elevated to the dignity of a tactical principle that none dared take the risk to disprove. And the Japanese had disposed of the only Allied battleship and battle cruiser in the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. The Allies lost face throughout the Orient and began to lose confidence in themselves.
U.S. Admiral Thomas Hart, Phillips' American counterpart, was critical of the failure of the Royal Air Force to provide air support to Force Z. Hart told Time Magazine in 1942:
The only thing that would have saved Singapore would have been the success of Admiral Sir Tom Phillips' attempt to place his heavy ships where they could sink the Japanese transports at sea. We have never heard why the R.A.F. fighters, which were half an hour away, gave Admiral Phillips no help whatever.
Read more about this topic: Tom Phillips (Royal Navy Officer)
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