Scapegoat: The Death of Prince of Wales and Repulse by Dr Martin Stephen Read Free Book Online

of the stern. The effect on Prince of Wales is catastrophic. The bracket securing the port outboard propeller shaft to the hull shears and the unsecured shaft is allowed to continue revolving too long, tearing a gash in the hull along the length of the shaft. The ship takes on an immediate list of 11.5° to port. With only the two starboard shafts operating, speed drops from 25kt to 16kt. Flooding and shock damage disable much of the ship’s electrics and render four of its eight 5.25 anti-aircraft turrets inoperable. The ship also loses her steering. The torpedo hits render Prince of Wales useless as a fighting vessel, but do not sink her. Even at this stage, when his ship could have been kept afloat, Phillips does not signal to Singapore for air support.
    1145–1152hrs: Repulse manages to avoid seven torpedoes and six bombs, acting now as the focus of the Japanese attacks.
    1158hrs: Repulse signals ‘OEAB’ (enemy aircraft bombing). In the brief lull that follows the last attacks on Repulse , Captain Tennant decides he should manoeuvre closer to Prince of Wales to see if he could offer assistance. He is horrified to be told that Prince of Wales has made no signal to Singapore, and immediately makes his own. Received in Singapore at 1204hrs, it results in the scrambling of eleven Buffalo fighters of 453 Squadron, at 1225hrs, under the command of Flight-Lieutenant Tim Vigors.
    1210hrs: Prince of Wales hoists two black balls, the international signal for a ship not under control.
    1218hrs: Twenty-six Bettys of the Kanoya Group, low on fuel, spot a seaplane (probably Repulse’ s Walrus), and then spot Force Z.
    1220hrs: Prince of Wales signals she has been hit, and asks Singapore to send destroyers. This signal has been seen by many commentators as showing Phillips’s contempt for air cover: ‘… it is incredible that the Admiral should ask for destroyers rather than fighter aircraft.’ 22
    1223hrs: A new Japanese attack has three planes break off from attaching Prince of Wales and turn on Repulse when she has already taken evasive action to comb the tracks of eight torpedoes launched at her from relatively long range. Repulse is hit by one torpedo on her torpedo bulge, and shrugs off the hit, continuing to steam at twenty-five knots. Prince of Wales is hit by four torpedoes evenly spaced along her hull. The last one on her stern is probably decisive, as it negates all damage control in that area.
    c1223hrs: Repulse ’s luck finally runs out. Caught in a pincer movement, she takes three torpedo hits on her starboard side, one to port. Her rudder is jammed, and she takes on a list of 30° to port.
    1225hrs: Eleven Buffalo fighters are scrambled.
    1233hrs: Repulse sinks.
    1243hrs: The final attack takes place on Prince of Wales. A 1,100lb bomb hits the cinema flat, causing horrific injuries to the wounded gathered there in large numbers. The explosion also damages uptakes and downtakes to her last operating boiler room. The ship stops.
    1252hrs: Prince of Wales signals an emergency, and asks Singapore to send tugs.
    1305hrs: Express comes alongside Prince of Wales to take off survivors.
    1318hrs: Prince of Wales rolls over and sinks. Two Buffaloes arrive, possibly sent by Admiral Palliser, followed by 453 Squadron. The death toll is twenty officers and 307 ratings from Prince of Wales and twenty-four officers and 486 ratings from Repulse. Neither Admiral Phillips nor Captain Leach of Prince of Wales survives, though the most recent commentator believes ‘Admiral Phillips had not tried to ‘go down with the ship’.’ 23 One account has the last words Phillips was heard to utter as, ‘I cannot survive this.’ 24
    Though Phillips has had his defenders, including Dudley Pound, Phillips’s son and a number of those who sailed with him on his last voyage, history has not been kind to Admiral Sir Tom Phillips. Many commentators have focused on his failure to comprehend the reality of air power:
    ‘But, throughout the