LOSS OF CAPITAL SHIPS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24145, 11 December 1941, Page 8

LOSS OF CAPITAL SHIPS

With profound regret we record the loss by enemy action of two brave ships, the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Repulse. These are "sore and heavy tidings" and the blow to the Royal Navy a heavy one. Official details are few at the time of writing, but it may be hoped that the ships 5 companies have been spared the fate that befell their ships. Although the United States' entry into the war is only a few days old, a common bereavement has descended to bind the new military alliance. Both the British and American Navies have suffered loss in the same way—by aerial attack by a treacherous enemy. The battleship Prince of Wales also carries treasured Anglo - American associations, for she carried Mr. Churchill to the rendezvous with Mr. Roosevelt, on her was held the joint church parade, and she stood by while the leaders of the democracies made the Atlantic Charter. She was one of Britain's five most modern battleships, the second of the King George V. class to be commissioned, and last June took part with the battlecruiser Hood in the action against the Bismarck in

Denmark Strait. She sustained damage, but trailed the Bismarck until the latter was sunk off Brest. H.M.S; Repulse, a veteran of the last war, has a link with Auckland, visiting the city with the Hood in May, 1924. She, with the Hood and llenown, was one of the three battlecruisers with which the Royal "Navy entered the war. The loss of two such valuable ships must be viewed with deep gravity as affecting the balance of sea power in Far Eastern waters.