PRINCE OF WALES

Waikato Times, Volume 129, Issue 21601, 11 December 1941, Page 5

PRINCE OF WALES

CHASING OF BISMARCK

»' 1500 MEN ON BOARD

COST ABOtY £7,000,000

(Received Dec. 11, 11.30 a.m.) RUGBY, Dec. 10 H.M.S. Prince ot Wales, the newest of the British 35,000-ton battleships, only last week arrived at Singapore as the flagship of Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, newly-appointed Comman-der-in-Chief of the Eastern Fleet. She was the second of five George V. class battleships to be commissioned. It was announced in April that she

had joined the fleet, and the following month she was in action, with the ; ill-fated H.M.S. Hood, in the first en- | counter with the German battleship Bismarck. The Prince of Wales suffered 1 slight damage in the first engage--1 ment off Greenland, but continued to pursue the Bismarck and again made contact, shadowing her in bad visibility for several hundred miles, although it was other British ships which eventually sank the Bismacrk. Last August the Prince of Wales took Mr Winston Churchill to the memorable Atlantic meeting with President Roosevelt. It was in the Prince of Wales that the famous Atlantic Charter was drawn up. She was armed with new model, super-powerful 14-inch guns . She had 10 in three turrets and 16 fiveinch guns in eight twin turrets. She carried four aircraft. Her complement was about 1500 and she cost about £7,000,000. 1200 Men on Repulse

H.M.S. Repulse was one of the famous British battle-cruisers and a sister ship of H.M.S. Renown. A third vessel of the class was H.M.S. Hood. The Repulse had a displacement of 32,000 tons and a complement of about 1200. She could develop over 30 knots. I Her main armaments were six 15-inch guns and she also had a big armament of four-inch and anti-air-

craft guns. , The loss of the Prince of Wales L and the Repulse is felt in authori- , tative quarters in London to be very , serious, in view of the fact that seapower will play a predominant part in the war again Japan. The most interesting feature of the unprovoked Japanese attacks is the wide dispersal of operations—a clear indication of many days’ premeditation before the surprise assaults were launched.

H.M.S. Prince of Wales, 35,000 tons, was launched from Messrs Cammell Laird’s yard at Birkenhead on May 3, 1939. Her complement was 1500 officers and men and her armament was ten 14in. and sixteen 5.25in. guns. Her 152,000 horse-power turbines gave her a maximum speed of over 30 knots. Laid down at Clydebank in January, 1915, H.M.S. Repulse took only the short period of 19 months to be built. With a displacement of 32,000 tons, she developed a maximum speed of 31.5 knots from turbines of 112,000 horse-power. In May, 1924, she visited Auckland during an Empire cruise. Her armament was six 15in., twenty 4in. and six smaller guns. Eight abovewater torpedo tubes were also mounted.