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HMS Repulse

In the early months of the Great War the need for additional battle cruisers of very high speed and armed with big guns, became more and more apparent, both to deal with raids on British coasts by enemy battle cruisers and with possible raids further afield. The value of this type of ship was also most clearly demonstrated at the Battle of the Falkland Isles. The British Admiralty therefore decided on the advice of Lord Fisher in January 1915, to lay down a new type of cruiser, of great length and limited draft, and of very much increased speed, to meet this need. The battle cruisers Repulse and Renown were therefore ordered, the former from Messrs. John Brown and Co., -Ltd., Clydebank, and the latter from the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Ltd., Glasgow, at the beginning of January, 1915. Originally intended to be units of the R class battleships, two ships were ordered to a modified design.

Both ships were the largest and most noteworthy warships added to the British fleet during the war, and were alike in every respect. The first vessel was successfully launched on January 8, 1916. The Repulse left Clydebank Yard, a commissioned ship, on August 14, 1916, or in 19 months from the date when the requisite information was received by Messrs. John Brown and Co., and the Fairlield Company to proceed with the detailed drawings in conjunction with the Admiralty officials, and to send out orders for material. On a preliminary run to Ailsa Craig immediately after the vessel reached the Tail-of-the-Bank, the machinery was gradually worked up to 107,000 shp, and on the following day, during the four hours' trial, the mean horse-power developed for the first two hours was 117,000 and for the subsequent two hours 121,000. Further trials were carried out in the Firth of Clyde when the vessel was loaded to about 30,000 tons’ displacement, and over a measured course a speed of nearly 32 knots was attained, the machinery developing over 119,000 shp.

The Repulse was the largest and most powerful warship in the world at the time, her length being 790 feet, breadth 90 feet, and depth to upper deck 41 feet, with a normal displacement of about 27,000 tons. The great length in proportion to depth gave the appearance of a large type of light cruiser rather than a battle cruiser, but on closer examination, the two barbettes, each having a pair of 15-inch guns highly mounted for ahead attack, equal in power to those fitted in the super-dreadnoughts, and a similar pair of 15-inch guns mounted in a turret aft, gave a strong impression of the great size of the vessel. These guns were each arranged to train through 150 degrees On either side of the middle line, and give a concentrated broadside fire, equal to 75 per cent of that of the latest battleships, thus making the vessel very powerful in attack.

The secondary armament consisted of seventeen 4-inch B.L. guns, 15 of these being arranged on triple mountings, two sets on the conning-tower platform level on each side of the forward funnel, and three sets on the middle line on the flying and the shelter deck level. The single 4-inch B.L. guns were placed on the shelter deck, on each side abreast of the conningtower, with a training sweep of 155 degrees. Two 3-inch high-angle guns were mounted on pedestals on the shelter deck abreast after the funnel, four 3-pdr. Q. F. guns on the same deck abreast the forward funnel, and five machine guns. In conjunction with these guns, there were fitted on platforms attached to the funnels six 36-inch single searchlight projectors, two similar projectors on the compass platform, and two 24-inch single signalling searchlights at the after end of the conning-tower platform. The vessel was fitted with two 21-inch under-water broadside torpedo tubes, placed in a compartment between the platform and the lower deck forward of the forward magazine; stowage is provided for ten torpedoes.

The conning-tower was of oval form, having armour 10 inches thick, with an inner gun control tower with revolving hood and armored rangefinder. An armored torpedo control tower, with revolving hood and rangefinder for controlling the fire of the torpedoes, was placed on the after flying deck. In addition to these towers, which were situated in commanding positions, there were fitted on the foremast high above the navigating platforms a spotting top, a 15-inch gun director platform, and a 4-inch gun director platform; also a director platform and rangefinder for anti-aircraft guns on the main mast; and a signal distributing station in the armored house on the shelter deck under the main conning-tower. The intelligence and de-coding offices were in similarly protected houses placed on the forecastle and shelter decks respectively.

The vessel was minutely sub-divided, having six boiler rooms, four engine rooms, and a cellular double bottom, extending from the middle line around the side and under the main or protective deck. A longitudinal bulkhead forming the boundary of the oil tanks extended alongside the engine rooms, boiler rooms and magazines, with an inner bulkhead forming an air space for the extent of the boiler rooms.

The armor consists of a main belt about 9 feet 6 inches wide extending from abreast the after barbette to forward, and aft of these positions for a further length of 84 feet forward, and 62 feet aft of reduced thickness. The armor belt was finished off by a transverse armor bulkhead forward and aft, and two additional transverse armor bulkheads ware fitted to resist end on fire. The maximum thickness of the armor of the barbettes is 7 inches. The forward conning-tower armor was 10 inches thick, and the torpedo control tower 3 inches thick. The main or protective deck was 2 inches thick on the slopes with an additional strake of 2 inches high-tension protective plating in the vicinity of the water-line. The lower deck aft was 3% inches thick over steering gear.

Structurally, the vessel was very substantially built, the shell plating of the topsides and the forecastle deck consisting of two thicknesses of high tensile steel of a total thickness of 1½ inches, and the bottom plating is generally 1 inch thick, tapered at the ends. The chart house, admiral's and captain's sea cabins, navigating officer's cabin, were situated on the platform and shelter deck forward. The Remere was completed as a flagship, the admiral’s-cabins being in the deck house on the after end of the forecastle deck. The ward room, captain’s cabins, and principal officers' accommodation, offices, etc., were on the upper deck aft. The gun room and junior ofiicers’ cabins were placed on the main deck aft of midships. The mess decks for the crew were on the upper deck amidships and forward, and on the main deck amidships; the sick bay and operating rooms, and lavatories in connection therewith, were on the upper deck forward; the wash places for crew were on the main deck abreast the boiler rooms and forward.

The equipment of the vessel was very complete; the electric generating machinery consists of two sets of steam-driven reciprocating engines, each of 200 kw.; one turbo and one Diesel engine-driven generators of equal power placed in separate compartments forward and aft; electric boat winches, ammunition and deck winches; warping capstan; auxiliary steering gear; ventilating fans for machinery spaces and for working compartments and living quarters; electric heating for cabins, magazine cooling and icemaking plant; electric pumps for fresh water and bilge purposes; three sets of wireless installation; eight lifts for engine and boiler rooms; electric power for driving workshop machinery; at very complete installation of telephones and alarm bells; also the electrical equipment in connection with fire control, transmission of range and training of guns, danger signals, torpedo control and firing gear, and gyrocompasses. The capstan engines and cable holders were of the usual steam-driven type for the forward cable gear. The steam steering engines, controlled by telemotors, were placed on the after bulkhead in the engine room, and were connected up by shafting and gearing to a powerful set of screw steering gear operating a single balanced rudder.

The propelling machinery consisted of Brown-Curtis turbines driving four shafts, two on each side of the ship. They were the largest direct-drive turbines built in the world. The turbines were placed in two engine rooms side by side, divided by a middle-line bulkhead. In each engine room were three turbines driving the two shafts, the high pressure ahead and low pressure ahead being on the inner shaft and rigidly connected with each other, and the intermediate pressure ahead on the wing shaft. Incorporated in the same casing as the intermediate pressure ahead turbine is a high pressure astern turbine and with the low pressure ahead turbine is a low pressure astern turbine. In this view there is seen alongside the low pressure turbine for a geared set of about three-fourths of the power and the effect on size of increasing the number of revolutions where gearing was fitted between the turbine and propeller will be appreciated.

The high pressure ahead turbine consisted of two wheels, each carrying three rows of blades, the pitch circle diameter of these blades being to feet 6 inches. The intermediate pressure ahead turbine consisted of two stages of two rows of blades each, and a short drum of 12 rows of blades; then a second portion of two stages of two rows each; and a drum of 31 rows. The pitch circle diameter of these varies from 9 feet 3 inches to 10 feet. The low pressure ahead rotor consists of a drum portion of 34 rows, with a pitch circle diameter of 12 feet. The last blades were 26 inches in length and 1 inch wide.

The astern turbines consisted of two stages of four rows each and a drum of six rows forming the high pressure astern turbine and a wheel of three rows and a drum of nine rows forming the low pressure astern turbine. The pitch circle diameter of the high pressure astern turbine was 10 feet and of the low pressure astern 11 feet.

The propeller thrust in each case was nearly balanced by the steam thrust arranged in the turbine, so that no main thrust block is necessary, but only a comparatively small block on each line of shafting. Each of these blocks has a thrust surface of 4370 square inches on 16 collars. In order to obtain this balance in the intermediate pressure turbine, one of Mr. Curtis' latest patents was introduced, namely, to take the steam a short distance along the turbine, passing it in the forward direction, and then, by external passages, to cause it to re-enter the turbine and to travel aft for the remainder of the length of the rotor. The intermediate shafting is 18 inches diameter with an 11-inch hole, and the propeller shafts were 24 inches diameter with a 16—inch hole, these being cased with gunmetal liners in the stern tubes and main brackets.

The condensers, two for each set of engines, were placed in two compartments, immediately aft of the main engine rooms, with the eduction pipes passing through the transverse-bulkhead. The surface of each condenser was 19,225 square feet, or a total of 76,900 square feet for all the condensers. In the condenser room were the main circulating pumps, two per set of main engines, the evaporators and distillers, etc. The main air pumps were in the main engine room, so as to be under the control of the engineer of the watch. The forced lubrication pumps for the turbine bearings were also in the engine rooms, together with the necessary oil coolers, filters, etc., while the smaller forced lubrication pumps, coolers, etc., for the shaft bearings were in the condenser rooms.

Steam was supplied by 42 boilers of the Babcock and Wilcox type, these being entirely oil fuel fired and working at a pressure of 250 pounds per square inch; The total combustion chamber space of the boilers is 23,3I0 cubic feet, and the total heating surface of all the boilers is 157,206 square feet. The boilers were all alike, each of 22 sections wide, 8 feet 1 inch between headers. The bottom tubes were 3“ inches external diameter each and the remainder of the tubes Iii inches external diameter. The vessel has two funnels, the forward one serving 22 boilers and the after one 20 boilers. The forward funnel was 25 feet by 16-feet 6 inches and the after one is 13 feet by 16 feet 6 inches.

She was a bit strange looking, with all four main turrets mounted on different decks, only six heavy guns, secondary armament mounted high, funnels of differing heights -- just strange. But, for all that, one of the best, most classic looking of all the dreadnoughts.

In November 1917 a British squadron, which included the battle cruiser Repulse, surprised German mine-sweepers at work in the Bight under cover of a light cruiser screen. A brief action ensued at high speed, during which the Repulse scored a raking hit from her 15-inch battery on the German light cruiser Konigsberg. The projectile, weighing over 1,900 pounds, passed through all the funnels and exploded in one of the forward bunkers. It broke up into a few large fragments, the detonation being so feeble that only minor local damage was done. Had this shell functioned efficiently it would probably have destroyed the ship.

When the two joined the Grand Fleet after Jutland, they were immediately sent back to the yards for the inclusion of more armor. The catastrophic loss of three British battlecruisers at Jutland severely tarnished the reputation of this type of warship.

After the War the fleet had to be modified in deference to the urgent need of economy. The Home Fleet was the first to go. After being in commission only six months it was reduced on October 1, 1919, to a reserve basis, and a month later was abolished altogether. Shortly afterward the “Flying Squadron” of aircraft carriers was disbanded, all but one of its ships being paid off. On the other hand, a light cruiser squadron and a destroyer flotilla originally embodied in the Home Fleet were transferred to the Atlantic Fleet, which therefore had two light cruiser squadrons and four destroyer flotillas. In February, 1921, the battleship “Royal Sovereign" was paid off, its withdrawal leaving the Atlantic Fleet with only nine battleships in full commission. During the whole of 1921 the Battle Cruiser Squadron consisted of only the “Hood" and the “Tiger," the “Renown" being absent in Australia with the Prince of Wales and the “Repulse" undergoing a large refit. The “Repulse" was recommissioned, but the “Renown" was then placed in reserve, so that the strength of the squadron was limited to three ships.

In 1922 Renown's main armour belt was removed and a new 9-inch belt was installed, using up the remaining plates made surplus by the conversion of the battleship Almirante Cochrane (originally ordered by Chile and purchased after the war began) to the aircraft carrier HMS Eagle as well as new armour, but installed about 3 feet (0.9 m) higher than on Repulse to offset any increase in draught. A strake of tapered armour was fitted underneath the main belt to deflect any shell that dived beneath the water's surface; it was 9-inches thick at top and thinned to 2 inches (51 mm) at the bottom. The ship's deck armour was heavily reinforced adjacent to its machinery spaces and magazines.

Renown began a thorough reconstruction in September 1936, based on that of the battleship HMS Warspite. Her superstructure and funnels were razed to the level of the upper deck, her masts taken out and the ship's main and secondary armament was removed. The ship's engines and boilers were replaced by Parsons geared turbines and eight Admiralty three-drum boilers operating at 400 psi (2,758 kPa; 28 kgf/cm2). This saved some 2,800 long tons (2,800 t) of weight and allowed the two forward boiler rooms to be converted to 4.5-inch (110 mm) magazines and other uses. Renown's deck protection was somewhat upgraded by adding non-cemented armour where it had not been added earlier and protecting the new 4.5-inch magazines. The ship's 15-inch gun turrets were modified to the Mark I (N) standard with their elevation increased to 30°. Twenty dual-purpose QF 4.5-inch Mark III guns in twin BD Mark II mountings replaced all of the 4-inch guns. Six of the gun turrets, three on each side, were abreast the forward funnel while the remaining four were mounted on abreast the main mast.

The HMS Prince of Wales along with 26,500-ton HMS Repulse, were destroyed by Japanese aircraft while returning to Singapore, 10 December 1941, in the first sinking of heavy vessels on the high seas by aircraft. As World War II ramped up in the Pacific, on 10 December 1941, two British capital ships steamed toward Singapore to engage a Japanese flotilla threatening British interests there. One of the ships, the HMS Prince of Wales, was a relatively new battleship; the other ship, the HMS Repulse, was a still-formidable, World War I-era battle cruiser.

Aware of the convoy and its mission, Japan elected to attack it with airpower, launching 84 torpedo planes to strike the convoy. The fleet was attacked by 86 Japanese aircraft from the 22nd Air Flotilla based in Saigon, which attacked both Prince of Wales and Repulse. In the ensuing attacks, Repulse was ably handled by her Captain, Bill Tennant, who managed to avoid several torpedo attacks. However Repulse´s luck was not to hold out and she was caught by a skillfully synchronised Japanese pincer attack and hit by four or even five torpedoes in rapid succession.

Repulse was fatally hit and soon developed a severe list to port over a period of about six minutes. It was clear that she was sinking, and sinking fast, resulting in Tennant ordering abandon ship. Repulse finally rolled over and sank at 12:23. The story of the sinking of the Repulse was told in the 1942 book, Suez to Singapore, written by CBS Radio war correspondent Cecil Brown. Although an older ship than the Prince of Wales, the Repulse survived a bomb hit and managed to dodge 19 torpedoes before being sunk in 20 minutes after receiving 5 torpedo hits. However unlike Prince of Wales, when Repulse´s end came it was far quicker and resulted in a greater loss of life.

The outcome of the attack was lopsided. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse sank in just under three hours within a few minutes of each other and in sight of each other. His Majesty’s Navy should have seen the disaster coming. In 1941, the world was aware of new aviation technologies and abilities and that aircraft could sink a ship. Pearl Harbor had just been attacked 72 hours earlier.

Nevertheless, a British Navy commander clung to a certain mental model, elected not to change his fleet defense all that much, and the United Kingdom lost two warships and close to 1,000 lives. This was the first sinking of heavy vessels on the high seas by aircraft. The Japanese lost only three aircraft. The losses of these two vessels forebode a long and costly Pacific War. The attack on Hawaii changed these plans, and the sinking of the battleships HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse, with the loss of Admiral Phillips, resulted in an immediate decision to employ defensive vice offensive operations.

The news of the loss of Britain’s premier battleship and the failure of naval forces to check Japanese movements shocked Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain. Churchill, realizing the grave situation, later recalled: “In all the war I never received a more direct shock. As I turned over and twisted in bed, the full horror of the news sank upon me. Over this vast expanse of waters Japan was supreme, and we everywhere were weak and naked.”

The "Prince of Wales" and the "Repulse" were sent to Singapore as a deterrent, but the fact remains that they were sent out unescorted, and therefore did not prove so much a deterrent as an invitation to attack, since their presence, vulnerable as they were, presented an opportunity to the Japanese to attack the battle fleet piecemeal. When the "Prince of Wales" and the "Repulse" were lost a report was published that although Japanese aircraft were in the vicinity they did not machine-gun British sailors who were swimming in the water. If that be true, it is a remarkable fact. The Germans never hesitated to machine-gun British men in the water.

By late 2014 the hulls were being stripped bare for their scrap metal. Recognised war graves, they were disappearing. Although the wrecks of Her Majesty's Ships "Prince of Wales" and "Repulse" are lying in international waters over 50 miles from the Malaysia coast, they remain Crown property and as such the government was concerned to safeguard them. There were obvious difficulties of trying to prevent any unauthorised interference with the wrecks, particularly small isolated instances; but since salvage of these two ships would be a major and lengthy operation any attempt could hardly escape notice even in its preparatory stages. While the British presence in the Far East may have had a deterrent effect on would be salvors, the withdrawal of the Royal Navy from Singapore did affect in practice the British ability to take action should the necessity arise.