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admiral lancelot holland in his flagship hood ordered the force to steam at 27 knots 50 km h which it did most of the night his battle plan called for prince of wales and hood to concentrate on bismarck while the cruisers norfolk and suffolk would handle prinz eugen however the two cruisers were not informed of this plan because of strict radio silence at 02 00 on 24 may the destroyers were sent as a screen to search for the german ships to the north and at 02 47 hood and prince of wales increased speed to 28 knots 52 km h and changed course slightly to obtain a better target angle on the german ships the weather improved with 10 mile 16 km visibility and crews were at action stations by 05 10 16 sailors aboard the prince of wales under four 14 inch guns at 05 37 an enemy contact report was made and course was changed to starboard to close range neither ship was in good fighting trim hood designed twenty five years earlier lacked adequate decking armour and would have to close the range quickly as she would become progressively less vulnerable to plunging shellfire at shorter ranges she had completed an overhaul in march and her crew had not been fully retrained prince of wales with thicker armour was less vulnerable to 15 inch shells at ranges greater than 17 000 feet 5 200 m but her crew had also not been trained to battle efficiency the british ships made their last course change at 05 49 but they had made their approach too fine the german ships were only 30 degrees on the starboard bow and their aft turrets could not fire prinz eugen with bismarck astern had prince of wales and hood slightly forward of the beam and both ships could deliver full broadsides 17 at 05 53 despite seas breaking over the bows prince of wales opened fire on bismarck at 26 500 yards 24 200 m 18 there was some confusion among the british as to which ship was bismarck and thirty seconds earlier hood had mistakenly opened fire on prinz eugen as the german ships had similar profiles hood s first salvo straddled the enemy ship but prinz eugen in less than three minutes scored 8 inch shell hits on hood the first shots by prince of wales two three gun salvoes at ten second intervals were 1 000 yards over 17 the turret rangefinders on prince of wales could not be used because of spray over the bow and fire was instead directed from the 15 foot 4 6 m rangefinders in the control tower 19 the sixth ninth and thirteenth salvos were straddles 18 and two hits were made on bismarck one shell holed her bow and caused bismarck to lose 1 000 tons of fuel oil mostly to salt water contamination the other fell short and entered bismarck below her side armour belt the shell exploded and flooded the auxiliary boiler machinery room and forced the shutdown of two boilers due to a slow leak in the boiler room immediately aft the loss of fuel and boiler power were decisive factors in bismarck s decision to return to port 20 in prince of wales a1 gun ceased fire after the first salvo due to a defect 18 sporadic breakdowns occurred until the decision to turn away was made and during the turn y turret jammed 18 both german ships initially concentrated their fire on hood and destroyed her with salvoes of 8 and 15 inch shells an 8 inch shell hit the boat deck and struck a ready service locker for ammunition and a fire blazed high above the first superstructure deck at 05 58 at a range of 16 500 yards 15 100 m the force commander ordered a turn of 20 degrees to port to open the range and bring the full battery of the british ships to bear on bismarck as the turn began bismarck straddled hood with her third and fourth four gun salvoes and at 06 01 the fifth salvo hit her causing a large explosion flames shot up near hood s masts then an orange coloured fireball and an enormous smoke cloud obliterated the ship on prince of wales it seemed that hood collapsed amidships and the bow and stern could be seen rising as she rapidly settled prince of wales made a sharp starboard turn to avoid hitting the debris and in doing so further closed the range between her and the german ships in the four minute action hood the largest battlecruiser in the world had been sunk 1 419 officers and men were killed only three men survived 19 painting by j c schmitz westerholt depicting prince of wales in the foreground manoeuvring past the sinking wreck of the hood prince of wales fired unopposed until she began a port turn at 05 57 when prinz eugen took her under fire after hood exploded at 06 01 the germans opened intense and accurate fire on prince of wales with 15 inch 8 inch and 5 9 inch guns a heavy hit was sustained below the waterline as prince of wales manoeuvred past the wreckage of hood at 06 02 a 15 inch shell struck the starboard side of the compass platform and killed the majority of the personnel there the navigating officer was wounded but captain leach was unhurt casualties were caused by the fragments from the shell s ballistic cap and the material it dislodged in its diagonal path through the compass platform 19 a 15 inch diving shell penetrated the ship s side below the armour belt amidships failed to explode and came to rest in the wing compartments on the starboard side of the after boiler rooms the shell was discovered and defused when the ship was docked at rosyth 21 at 06 05 captain leach decided to disengage and laid down a heavy smokescreen to cover prince of wales s escape leach then radioed norfolk that hood had been sunk and went to join suffolk 15 to 17 miles 24 to 27 km astern of bismarck the british ships continued to chase bismarck until 18 16 when suffolk sighted the german battleship at 22 000 yards 20 000 m prince of wales then opened fire on bismarck at an extreme range of 30 300 yards 27 700 m all 12 salvos missed at 01 00 on 25 may prince of wales again regained contact and opened fire at a radar range of 20 000 yards 18 000 m after observers believed that she had scored a hit on bismarck prince of wales s a turret temporarily jammed leaving her with only six operational guns 18 after losing sight of bismarck owing to poor visibility and after searching for 12 hours prince of wales headed for iceland 22 thirteen of her crew had been killed and nine wounded 23 on friday 6 june while in dry dock a hole was found just above the starboard bilge keel after the inner space had been pumped out an unexploded shell from bismarck was found nose forward with its fuse but without a ballistic cap the shell was removed by the bomb disposal officer from hms cochrane 24 atlantic charter meeting edit prime minister winston churchill on board prince of wales during his journey across the atlantic to meet with president roosevelt 10 12 august 1941 prince of wales off newfoundland after ferrying churchill for the atlantic charter conference after repairs at rosyth prince of wales took prime minister winston churchill across the atlantic for the secret atlantic conference codename riviera with us president franklin d roosevelt 25 on 5 august roosevelt boarded the cruiser uss augusta from the presidential yacht potomac augusta proceeded from massachusetts to placentia bay and argentia in newfoundland with the cruiser uss tuscaloosa and five destroyers arriving on 7 august while potomac played a decoy role by continuing to cruise new england waters as if the president were still on board on 9 august churchill arrived in the bay aboard prince of wales escorted by the destroyers hms ripley hmcs assiniboine and hmcs restigouche 26 at placentia bay newfoundland roosevelt transferred to the destroyer uss mcdougal to meet churchill on board prince of wales the conference continued from 10 to 12 august aboard augusta and at the end of the conference the atlantic charter was proclaimed 27 prince of wales arrived back at scapa flow on 18 august 25 mediterranean duty edit in september 1941 prince of wales was assigned to force h in the mediterranean on 24 september prince of wales formed part of group ii led by vice admiral alban curteis and consisting of the battleships prince of wales and rodney the cruisers kenya edinburgh sheffield and euryalus and twelve destroyers the force provided an escort for operation halberd a supply convoy from gibraltar to malta 28 on 27 september the convoy was attacked by italian aircraft with prince of wales shooting down several with her 5 25 inch 133 mm guns 8 later that day there were reports that units of the italian fleet were approaching prince of wales the battleship rodney and the aircraft carrier ark royal were despatched to intercept but the search proved fruitless the convoy arrived in malta without further incident and prince of wales returned to gibraltar before sailing on to scapa flow arriving there on 6 october 25 far east edit main article sinking of prince of wales and repulse churchill had proposed sending one of the new king george v battleships to asia as a deterrent to japanese aggression though admiral of the home fleet sir john tovey was opposed believing that king george vs were not suited to operating in tropical climates 29 on 25 october prince of wales and a destroyer escort left home waters bound for singapore there to rendezvous with the battlecruiser repulse and the aircraft carrier indomitable indomitable however ran aground off jamaica a few days later and was unable to proceed calling at freetown and cape town south africa to refuel and generate publicity prince of wales also stopped in mauritius and the maldive islands prince of wales reached colombo ceylon on 28 november joining repulse the next day on 2 december the fleet docked in singapore 25 prince of wales then became the flagship of force z under the command of admiral sir tom phillips 30 prince of wales departing singapore to intercept japanese transports approaching malaya 8 december 1941 japanese troop convoys were first sighted on 6 december two days later japanese aircraft raided singapore although the prince of wales s anti aircraft batteries opened fire they scored no hits and had no effect on the japanese aircraft a signal was received from the admiralty in london ordering the british squadron to commence hostilities and that evening confident that a protective air umbrella would be provided by the raf presence in the region admiral phillips set sail force z at this time comprised the battleship prince of wales the battlecruiser repulse and the destroyers electra express tenedos and hmas vampire 31 the object of the sortie was to attack japanese transports at kota bharu but in the afternoon of 9 december the japanese submarine i 65 spotted the british ships and in the evening they were detected by japanese aerial reconnaissance by this time it had been made clear that no raf fighter support would be forthcoming at midnight a signal was received that japanese forces were landing at kuantan in malaya force z was diverted to investigate at 02 11 on 10 december the force was again sighted by a japanese submarine and at 08 00 arrived off kuantan only to discover that the reported landings were a diversion 31 prince of wales in the first torpedo attack at 11 00 that morning the first japanese air attack began eight type 96 nell bombers dropped their bombs close to repulse one passing through the hangar roof and exploding on the 1 inch plating of the main deck below the second attack force comprising seventeen nells armed with torpedoes arrived at 11 30 divided into two attack formations despite reports to the contrary prince of wales was struck by only one torpedo 32 29 meanwhile repulse avoided the seven torpedoes aimed at her as well as bombs dropped by six other nells a few minutes later the torpedo struck prince of wales on the port side aft abaft y turret wrecking the outer propeller shaft on that side and destroying bulkheads to one degree or another along the shaft all the way to b engine room this caused rapid uncontrollable flooding 29 and put the entire electrical system in the after part of the ship out of action lacking effective damage control she soon took on a heavy list 33 a third torpedo attack developed against repulse and once again she avoided taking any hits the crew of the sinking prince of wales abandoning ship to the destroyer express a fourth attack conducted by torpedo carrying type 1 bettys developed this one scored hits on repulse and she sank at 12 33 six aircraft from this wave also attacked prince of wales hitting her with three torpedoes 32 29 causing further damage and flooding finally a 500 kilogram 1 100 lb bomb hit prince of wales s catapult deck penetrated to the main deck where it exploded causing many casualties in the makeshift aid centre in the cinema flat several other bombs from this attack scored very near misses indenting the hull popping rivets and causing hull plates to split along the seams and intensifying the flooding 29 at 13 15 the order to abandon ship was given and at 13 20 prince of wales capsized to port floated for a few brief moments upside down and sank stern first 29 admiral phillips and captain leach were among the 327 fatalities out of a complement of 1 612 33 1 aftermath edit prince of wales and repulse were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by naval 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 to play in naval warfare thereafter it is often pointed out however that contributing factors to the sinking of prince of wales were her surface scanning radars being inoperable in the humid tropic climate depriving force z of one of its most potent early warning devices and the critical early damage she sustained from the first torpedo another factor which led to prince of wales s demise was the loss of her dynamos depriving prince of wales of many of her electric pumps further electrical failures left parts of the ship in total darkness and added to the difficulties of her damage repair parties as they attempted to counter the flooding 34 the sinking was the subject of an inquiry chaired by mr justice bucknill but the true causes of the ship s loss were only established when divers examined the wreck after the war the director of naval construction s report on the sinking claimed that the ship s anti aircraft guns could have inflicted heavy casualties before torpedoes were dropped if not preventing the successful conclusion of attack had crews been more adequately trained in their operation 35 29 the wreck edit a schematic of the torpedo damage to the stern of hms prince of wales 10 december 1941 is shown as if the ship was upright that is the wreck is upside down and this image is sometimes seen reversed the wreck lies upside down in 223 feet 68 m of water at 3 33 36 n 104 28 42 e 3 56000 n 104 47833 e 3 56000 104 47833 a royal navy white ensign attached to a line on a buoy tied to a propeller shaft is periodically renewed the wreck site was designated a protected place in 2001 under the protecti...
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