Sinking of HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales – December 10, 1941

Here's the eyewitness story of how the Prince of Wales and the Repulse ended their careers in the South China Sea, fifty miles from the Malaya coast and a hundred and fifty miles north of Singapore on December 11, 1941 at 5:16am.

I was aboard the Repulse and with hundreds of others escaped. Then, swimming in thick oil, I saw the Prince of' Wales lay over on her side like a tired warhorse and slide beneath the waters. I kept a diary from the time the first Japanese high level bombing started at 11:15 until 12:31, when Captain William Tennant, skipper of the Repulse and Senior British Captain afloat, shouted through the ship's communications system, "All hands on deck, prepare to abandon ship. May God be with you”.

I jumped twenty feet to the water from the up end of the side of the Repulse and smashed my stopwatch at thirty-five and a half minutes after twelve. The sinking of the Repulse and the Prince of Wales was carried out by a combination of high level bombing and torpedo attacks with consummate skill and the greatest daring. I was standing on the flag deck slightly I forward amidships when nine Jap bombers approached at ten I thousand feet strung in a line, clearly visible in the brilliant sunlit sky. They flew directly over our ship and our anti-aircraft guns were screaming constantly.

Just when the planes were passing over, one bomb hit the water beside where I was standing, so close to the ship that we were drenched from the water spout. Simultaneously another struck the Repulse on the catapult desk, penetrating the ship and exploding below in a marine's mess and hangar. Our planes were subsequently unable to take off. At 11:27 fire is raging below, and most strenuous efforts are under way to control it. All gun crews are replenishing their ammunition and are very cool and cracking jokes. There are a couple of jagged holes in the funnel near where I am standing.

It's obvious the Japs flew over the length of the ship, each dropping three bombs so that twenty-seven bombs fell around us at first in their attack. Brilliant red flashes are spouting from our guns' wells. The Prince of Wales is half a mile away. Destroyers are at various distances throwing everything they have into the air. A splash about two miles off our port beam may be anti-aircraft but we are uncertain. At 11:40 the Prince of Wales seems to be hit. She's reduced her speed. Now they're coming to attack us. The communications system shouts, "stand by for barrage." All our guns are going. We are twisting and snaking violently to avoid torpedoes. The Japs are coming in low, one by one in single waves. They're easy to spot. Amid the roar from the guns aboard the Repulse and the pom-poms of anti-aircraft fire, we are signaled, "We've a man overboard."

Two Jap aircraft are approaching us. I see more of them coming with the naked eye. I again count nine. They're torpedo bombers and are circling us about a mile and half or two miles away. 11:45 — now there seem to me more bombers but they are circling like vultures at about one thousand feet altitude. The guns are deafening. The smell of cordite is almost suffocating and explosions are ear shattering and the flashes blinding. The officer beside me yells, "Here comes a tin fish."

A Jap torpedo bomber is heading directly for us, two hundred yards above the water. At 11:48 he's less than five hundred distant, plowing onward. A torpedo drops and he banks sharply and his whole side is exposed to our guns but instead of driving away he's making a graceful dive toward the water. He hits and immediately bursts into flame in a gigantic splash of orange against the deep blue sky and the robins-egg blue water. Other planes are coming, sweeping low in an amazing suicide effort to sink the Repulse.

Their daring is astonishing, coming so close you can make out the pilot's outline. One coming in at 11:48 to our starboard just dropped a torpedo. A moment later I hear shouts of joy indicating that he was brought down but I didn't see that. We also claim we brought down two high level bombers previously but I didn't see these crash. At least at the moment I have no recollection of seeing them.

At 12:01 another wave of torpedo bombers is approaching. They are being met with everything we've got except our fourteen inchers. Beside me the signal officer flashes word from Captain Tennant to the Prince of Wales. "We eluded all torpedoes this second attack." It's fascinating to watch our tracer bullets speeding toward the Jap bombers. 12:03: we've just shot down another torpedo bomber who is about four hundred yards away and we shot it out. All of its motors are afire and disintegrating pieces of the fuselage are flying about. Now it disappears over the surface of the water into scrap. The brilliant orange from the fire against this blue sky is so close it's startling. All the men are cheering at the sight. It's so close it seems you could almost reach out and touch the remains of this Jap bomber.

At 12:15 the Wales seems to be stopped definitely. I've been too busy to watch the attacks against her but she seems in utmost difficulty. Her guns are firing constantly and we are both twisting. One moment the Wales is at our starboard, the next it's at our port. I'm not watching the destroyers but they have not been subjected to air attacks. The Japs are throwing everything recklessly against the two capital ships. There's fire aboard us and it's not out. I just saw some firemen and fire control parties. The calmness of the crews is amazing. I have constantly roved from one side of the flag deck to the other during the heavy firing and attacks and the cool precision of all hands has seemed unreal and unnatural. Even when they are handing up shells for the service guns, each shell is handed over with a joke. I never saw such happiness on men's faces. This is the first time these gun crews have been in action in this war and they are having the time of their lives. 12:20: I see ten bombers approaching us from a distance. It's impossible to determine whether this will be a high level attack or another torpedo bomber attack. "Stand by for barrage" comes over the ship's communication system.

One plane is circling around, it's now at three or four hundred yards approaching us from the port side. It's coming closer, head on, and I see a torpedo drop. It's streaking for us. A watcher shouts, "Stand by for torpedo" and the tin fish is streaking directly for us. Some one says: "This one got us." The torpedo struck the side on which I was standing about twenty yards astern of my position. It felt like the ship had crashed into a well-rooted dock. It threw me four feet across the deck but I did not fall and I did not feel any explosion, just a very great jar. Almost immediately it seemed we began to list and less than a minute later there was another jar of the same kind and the same force, except that it was almost precisely the same spot on the starboard side. After the first torpedo, the communication system coolly announced: "Blow up your life belts." I was in this process when the second torpedo struck and the settling ship and the crazy angle were so apparent I didn't continue blowing my belt.

That the Repulse was doomed was immediately apparent. The communication system announced, "Prepare to abandon ship. May God be with you." Without undue rush we all started streaming down ladders, hurrying but not pushing. It was most difficult to realize I must leave the ship. It seemed so incredible that the Repulse could or should go down. But the Repulse was fast heeling over to port and walking ceased to become a mode of locomotion. I was forced to clamber and scramble in order to reach the side. Men were lying dead around the guns. Some were half hidden by empty shell cases. There was considerable damage all around the ship. Some of the men had been machine-gunned. That had been unquestioned fact.

All around me men were stripping off their clothes and their shoes and tossing aside their steel helmets. Some are running alongside the three quarters exposed hull of the ship to reach a spot where they can slide down the side without injuring themselves in the jagged hole in the ship's side. Others are running to reach a point where they have a shorter dive to the water. I am reluctant to leave my new portable typewriter down in my cabin and unwilling to discard my shoes which I had made just a week before. As I go over the side the Prince of Wales half a mile away seems to be afire but her guns are still firing the heaviest. It's most obvious she's stopped dead and out of control due to her previous damage.

The air attack against the Prince of Wales carried out the same scheme directed against the Repulse. The Japs were able to send two British capital ships to the bottom because of first, a determined air torpedo attack and, second, the skill and the efficiency of the Japanese operations. It's apparent that the best guns and crews in the world will be unable to stem a torpedo bombing attack if the attackers are sufficiently determined.

According to the best estimate obtainable, the Japs used in their operations against both the Wales and the Repulse eighty-six bombers; eighteen high-level bombers and approximately twenty-five torpedo bombers against the Repulse and probably an equal number against the Prince of Wales. In the case of the Wales, however, the Japs started the torpedo bombing instead of initial high level bombing. In the first attack, one torpedo hit the Wales in the after-part. Some survivors believe the Wales was hit twice in the initial attack, than followed two more torpedo attacks, both successful. The final attack on the Wales was made by high level bombers around ten thousand feet. When that attack came, the Wales was sinking fast and everyone threw himself down on deck.

Most of the guns were unmanageable as a result of the list and the damage. I jumped into the water from the Repulse at 12:35. While I was in the water, the Wales continued firing for some time. The Wales suffered two direct hits by bombs on the deck. Like the attack on the Repulse, the Japs flew across the length of the Wales in a single line, each bomber dropping a stick. One officer said a child of six could see some of them were going to hit us. During the entire action Admiral Tom Phillips, Commander in Chief of the Far East Fleet, and Captain Leech, Skipper of the Prince of Wales were on the bridge.

While the torpedo bombers were rushing in toward the Wales, dropping tin fish and machine gunning the decks, Phillips clambered up on the roof of the bridge and also atop the gun turrets to see better and to direct all phases of the action. When it was apparent that the Wales was badly hit, the Admiral issued an order to the flag officer for the destroyer then lying alongside close by. "Signal to Singapore to send tugs to tow us." Evidently up to that moment, Phillips was not convinced that the Wales was sinking. The last order issued by Phillips came at approximately 1:15. It said, "Blow up your life belts." Later the ship was under water. Phillips and Leech were the last from the Wales to go over the side and they slid into the water together. It's probable that their reluctance to leave the ship until all possible men had left meant their death; since, it's most likely they were drawn down by the suction when the Wales was on her side and then settled at her stern with her bow rising into the air.

Swimming about a mile away, lying on top of a small stool, I saw the bow of the Wales. When Phillips signaled to ask Singapore to send tugs, the Wales already had four torpedoes in her. Like the Repulse, the Wales gun crews were very cool and although many guns were no longer effective the crew stood beside them. When the final high level bombing attack came, only three guns were capable of firing, except the fourteen-inchers, which naturally did not go into action. I did not meet Phillips but last week when I visited the Wales at the naval base, I had a long talk with Captain Leech. He's a jovial convivial, smiling officer who gave me the impression of the greatest kindliness and ability. The Wales carried a complement of seventeen hundred; the Repulse twelve hundred and fifty officers and ratings. When the Wales sank, the suction was so great it ripped off the life belt of one officer more than fifty feet away. A fortunate feature of the sinking of both the Repulse and the Wales was that neither blew up.

Since the tide was strong and there was an extremely powerful suction from both ships, it was extremely difficult to make any progress away from the ship in the thick oil. The gentle, quiet manner in which these shell-belching dreadnaughts went to their last resting place without exploding, was a tribute of gratitude from two fine ships for their fine sailors.

By Cecil Brown, Royal Navy

Reporting World War II
American Journalism 1938-1946

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