HMS Prince of Wales was a of the Royal Navy that was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. Despite being sunk less than a year after she was commissioned, Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock, when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait, where she scored three hits on the , forcing Bismarck to abandon her raiding mission and head to port for repairs. Prince of Wales later escorted one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, during which she was attacked by Italian aircraft. In her final action, she attempted to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya as part of Force Z when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
She was sunk alongside her consort, the battlecruiser , in an attack by 85 Mitsubishi G3M and G4M bombers of the Japanese navy air service. Prince of Wales and Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck of Prince of Wales lies upside down in of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.
Construction
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was drawn up in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35,000 tons. These restrictions were extended in 1930 through the Treaty of London, however, by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had withdrawn from both of these treaties, and the British became concerned about a lack of modern battleships within their navy. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the King George V class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the King George Vs were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the guns prescribed under these instruments. They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty, and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in 1937.
Prince of Wales was originally to be named King Edward VIII but upon the abdication of Edward VIII the ship was renamed at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead on 1 January 1937, before being laid down. She was launched on 3 May 1939. She was still fitting out when war was declared in September, causing her construction schedule, and that of her sister, , to be accelerated. Nevertheless, the late delivery of gun mountings caused delays in her outfitting.
In early August 1940, while she was still being outfitted and was in a semi-complete state, Prince of Wales was attacked by German aircraft. One bomb fell between the ship and a wet basin wall, narrowly missing a 100-ton dockside crane, and exploded underwater below the bilge keel, about six feet from the ship's port side in the vicinity of the aft group of 5.25-inch guns. The shell plating buckled over a distance of , rivets were sprung and there was considerable flooding in the port outboard compartments in the area of damage, causing a ten-degree list to port. The flooding was severe, because final compartment air tests had not yet been made and the ship did not have her pumping system in operation.
She was powered by Parsons geared steam turbines, driving four propeller shafts. Steam was provided by eight Admiralty boilers which normally delivered , but could deliver with forced draft,
for a top speed of . The ship carried of fuel oil, of diesel oil, of reserve feed water and of freshwater. Prince of Wales had a range of at .
Armament
thumb|A part of Prince of Wales<nowiki/>'s anti-aircraft armament: two of the eight-barreled [[QF 2 pounder naval gun|two-pounder pom-poms and two of the twin 5.25 inch gun turrets.]]
Prince of Wales mounted 10 BL 14-inch (356 mm) Mk VII guns, mounted in one Mark II twin turret forward and two Mark III quadruple turrets, one forward and one aft. The guns could be elevated 40 degrees and depressed 3 degrees. Training arcs were: turret "A", 286 degrees; turret "B", 270 degrees; turret "Y", 270 degrees. Training and elevating was done by hydraulic drives, with rates of two and eight degrees per second, respectively. A full gun broadside weighed , and a salvo could be fired every 40 seconds. The secondary armament consisted of 16 QF 5.25-inch (133 mm) Mk I guns mounted in eight twin mounts, weighing 81 tons each. The maximum range of the Mk I guns was at a 45-degree elevation, the anti-aircraft ceiling was . The guns could be elevated to 70 degrees and depressed to 5 degrees. The normal rate of fire was ten to twelve rounds per minute, but in practice, the guns could only fire seven to eight rounds per minute.
The next day Bismarck, in company with the heavy cruiser , was reported heading south-westward in the Denmark Strait. At 20:00 Vice-Admiral Lancelot Holland, in his flagship Hood, ordered the force to steam at , which it did most of the night. His battle plan called for Prince of Wales and Hood to concentrate on Bismarck, while the cruisers and 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 and changed course slightly to obtain a better target angle on the German ships. The weather improved, with visibility, and crews were at action stations by 05:10.
At 05:53, despite seas breaking over the bows, Prince of Wales opened fire on Bismarck at . 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. Hoods 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.
The sixth, ninth and thirteenth salvos were straddles In Prince of Wales, "A1" gun ceased fire after the first salvo due to a defect.
At 06:05 Captain Leach decided to disengage and laid down a heavy smokescreen to cover Prince of Waless escape. Leach then radioed Norfolk that Hood had been sunk and went to join Suffolk astern of Bismarck. The British ships continued to chase Bismarck until 18:16 when Suffolk sighted the German battleship at . Prince of Wales then opened fire on Bismarck at an extreme range of . All 12 salvos missed. At 01:00 on 25 May Prince of Wales again regained contact and opened fire at a radar range of , after observers believed that she had scored a hit on Bismarck, Prince of Waless "A" turret temporarily jammed, leaving her with only six operational guns. Thirteen of her crew had been killed, and nine wounded.
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
Atlantic Charter meeting
thumb|Prime Minister Winston Churchill on board Prince of Wales during his journey across the Atlantic to meet with President Roosevelt, 10–12 August 1941
thumb|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. On 5 August Roosevelt boarded the cruiser from the presidential yacht . Augusta proceeded from Massachusetts to Placentia Bay and Argentia in Newfoundland with the cruiser 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, and . At Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Roosevelt transferred to the destroyer 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. Prince of Wales arrived back at Scapa Flow on 18 August. On 27 September the convoy was attacked by Italian aircraft, with Prince of Wales shooting down several with her guns. On 25 October Prince of Wales and a destroyer escort left home waters bound for Singapore, there to rendezvous with the battlecruiser and the aircraft carrier . 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.
thumb|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 Waless 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 , , and .
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.
A third torpedo attack developed against Repulse and once again she avoided taking any hits.
thumb|The crew of the sinking Prince of Wales abandoning ship to the destroyer
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,
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. were analysed by the SNAME (Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers) Marine Forensics Committee and a resultant paper was drawn up entitled Death of a Battleship: A Re-analysis of the Tragic Loss of HMS Prince of Wales, and was subsequently presented at a meeting of RINA (Royal Institution of Naval Architects) and IMarEST (Institute of Marine Engineering, Science & Technology) members in London in 2009 by Mr William Garzke. This report was also presented to the IMarEST, this time in New York, in 2011. However, in 2012 the original paper was updated and expanded (and renamed Death of a Battleship: The Loss of HMS Prince of Wales. A Marine Forensics Analysis of the Sinking It is a tradition for passing Royal Navy ships to perform a remembrance service over the site of the wrecks. In May 2023, it was reported that a Chinese ship, Chuan Hong 68, illegally scavenged the wreck for its low-background steel. In July 2024, this same vessel, Chuan Hong 68, suspected of not only looting the wrecks of Force Z but other World War II wrecks in Asian waters, was back 'working' in the region and was subsequently detained by Malaysia authorities for 'paperwork violations'.
Replica bell for successor
In spring 2019, Cammell Laird was commissioned to make a replica of the ship's bell for the ship's successor, , the second . The original at the National Museum of the Royal Navy's Portsmouth Historic Dockyard location was surveyed as part of the process. Cammell Laird were able to contact Utley Offshore in St Helens, the foundry that made the original bell and that of , which still had the pattern based on the 1908 Admiralty design. Compared to the bronze or bell metal that is used in most modern ship bells, nickel silver was used for authenticity. The engraving was done by Shawcross in Birkenhead, while Cammell Laird shipwrights constructed the hardwood base. Cammell Laird COO Tony Graham presented the finished replica to commanding officer Captain Darren Houston during the ship's week-long visit to Liverpool in March 2020.
Refits
During her career, Prince of Wales was refitted on several occasions, to bring her equipment up to date. The following are the dates and details of the refits undertaken.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Dates !! Location !! Description of Work
|-
| May 1941 || Rosyth || 4 × Type 282 radar and 4 × Type 285 radar added.
|-
| June–July 1941 || Rosyth || UP projectors removed. 2 × 8-barrelled and 1 × 4-barrelled 2-pdr pom-poms added. Type 271 radar added.
|-
| November 1941 || Cape Town || 7 × single 20 mm added.