Best Of

@Callum Thank you so much. It was really hard to build at scale, cause it sits at around 250-300 blocks long, and the lighting was a bit of a tricky one.

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Repulses sinking was a catastrophic shock. The entire british eastern fleet was based around Prince of Wales and Repulse, so when both capital ships were sunk in a single lengthy air attack, it marked a turning point in naval history. The end of the British Eastern Fleet in the Pacific. It also marked the first time in history that a battleship/battlecruiser was sunk in the open sea's by airpower alone, cementing the end of the era of the battleship/battlecruiser, and bringing in the era of the aircraft carrier. And even though Repulse was a WW1 design, in ww2, it was still a powerful unit, which made it's loss even more tragic. After 1946, no more battleships/battlecruisers were ever constructed as a result, with carriers taking precedence, and carrier escort ships like cruisers and destroyers taking priority.

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The Royal Navy's remaining units in the pacific region would go on to sink in the battle of the Java Sea mere months later, and the British would not return into the pacific until the very final years of the war. As i say, churchill called it the worst shock of the entire war.

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And in term of inspiring other ships, no modern day ships are inspired by her sadly, due to the changes in naval warfare that resulted from her sinking. But doctrine did change as a result. Before, battleships could operate independently. After Repulse was lost, never again would battleships venture out without air cover for the rest of WW2, and it became clear that carrier aviation would become the dominant form of naval warfare from that stage on, something that holds true to this day. So mass doctrine changes are the biggest change inspired by it's loss.

Design (Continued)

As a result, by 1945, sending Warspite to the pacific would have been a severe hindrance, rather than an asset. With carrier task forces reaching 28 knots plus, vital for strategic purposes, Warspite limited to 15-19 knots at that stage, and 23 knots before damaged, the entire task force would have to slow down just for warspite to keep pace. It would struggle with shooting down attacking aircraft, and coming under bomber attack, would slow down the entire fleet, and give the enemy the advantage as a result, to position itself where it chose. War was simply not a viable ship to retain in the era of jet aircraft and guided missiles post war.

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And whilst desperate attempts were made to turn Warspite into a museum ship, the 35,000 tonne battleship was sent to the scrapyard, as the UK was broke at that stage post war.

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Not many ships can say they were built in the dreadnought era, ordered pre-ww1 in 1912 technically, in the time of bi-planes, entering service mid war to fight the biggest dreadnought battle in history, to then over it's lifespan go from that, to fighting in fully fledged advanced carrier warfare in ww2, along with taking guided missile hits, all the while finding itself in the single biggest naval battles the British fought in WW2.

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Again, please feel free to ask any questions about anything. If you want to know more about a specific battle in more detail that Warspite fought in, or any technical specs, or any theatres, or if you want me to go into detail about anything, any question at all, please feel free to ask.

Todays ship is HMS Warspite

I am not exaggerating when I say, this is the single greatest naval vessel in human history, and it isn't even remotely close. There is not a single ship in history that played as significant a role as HMS Warspite, or as she was nicknamed "the grand old lady".

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Okay, this is going to be the single longest piece I've ever written (split into two parts due to character limits), and it's not even remotely close to covering it's full service history, so I'm going to split it into several sections. My Minecraft build of it, It's service history, and it's design.

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My Minecraft builds

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The last two are of HMS Warspite at night, extinguishing it's lights (it's spotted an Italian heavy cruiser on it's radar, at Cape Mattapan)

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HMS Warspite's Service Record

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Warspite was awarded more battle honours than any other ship in royal navy history. I will quickly bullet point some of Warspite's achievements, some of which are just insane:

• Entered Service in 1915, with the largest calibre guns ever mounted on a battleship. It was one of the largest ships in history when built, and was by definition a superdreadnought, with the fastest speed ever seen on a dreadnought. She proceeded to accidentally ram her sister ship
• Repaired and joined 5th battle squadron, quickly getting a reputation for the most accurate shooting squadron the royal navy possessed
• Raced into the battle of Jutland, the largest single naval battle in human history (Leyte gulf was 4 battles around Leyte, not one), as part of the second royal navy squadron to join the battle.
• Proceeded to instantly disable gun turrets on the German battlecruisers Moltke and Von Der Tann, forcing them to zigzag, from long range, and turned the tide of the battlecruiser action
• When the British were lead into a trap by the Germans, Warspite and her 3 sister ships, got inbetween the crippled British battlecruisers, and single handedly engaged and took fire from the ambushing 18 German dreadnoughts and 4 German battlecruisers, the second largest naval force in history at this stage
• For over an hour, Warspite and her 3 sister ships continued to take more damage than any single ship in history at that stage from naval gunfire, whilst somehow dishing out equal punishment on the combined 22 German capital ships.
• Warspite and 5th battle squadron managed to counter the trap, by luring the trappers into the British trap, with the grand fleet arriving.
• When the Grand Fleet arrived, Warspite took a hit to her rudder, causing her to spin in a circle in front of the entire German navy. All 22 German capital ships proceeded to focus fire on her. A critically damaged cruiser under heavy fire, was saved by this accidental diversion, and able to evacuate it's crew. Warspite survived, and sailed back to the UK
• On route back to the UK, she attempted to ram a submarine because why not
• Repaired, and put back to sea, again, waiting for a chance to smoke the German fleet again.
• German Fleet never ventures out again after Jutland, and surrenders at WW1's end. Warspite escorts the German fleet into allied custody. Largest naval assembly in human history.
• Made flagship of the British Mediterranean fleet in 1925, and takes part in exercises.
• 10 years later, undergoes massive modernisation, as Warspite was a pre-ww1 design. Receives Radar, upgraded fire control, improvements to it's guns, and propulsion systems, and air defence.
• Helps to enforce the arms embargo on Spain during the Spanish civil war
• At the outbreak of WW2, is recalled to the home fleet, to replace the tragic loss of HMS Royal Oak.
• Takes part in convoy heavy escort duties
• After the 1st battle of Narvik, 10 German destroyers were left stuck at Narvik, and the royal navy destroyer force had taken heavy losses. The admiralty order Warspite to enter the fjord to "clear it".
• Warspite sails in with destroyer escort and proceeds to slump every single German ship at Narvik. Without going into to much detail, some German destroyers were split clean in half, some of them ended up upside down on land, and the German destroyers were no more. A full half of all German destroyers in service at that time.
• Warspite's spotter aircraft also scores the first Ariel U-boat kill of the war, by dropping a depth charge
• Warspite leaves Narvik, completely undamaged, escorts a few more convoys, and then is redeployed back to the Mediterranean
• Becomes flagship, and enters just in time for the Italian declaration of war (Warspite is their natural predator)
• Warspite is immediately engaged by two Italian battleships, Littorio and Giulio Cesare, at the battle of Calabria. She proceeds to score the longest ranged hit in naval gunnery history, on Giulio Cesare, blowing up one of it's engine rooms. Warspite charges back, and the Italian fleet immediately began to withdraw.
• Warspite then began it's service running convoys through during the siege of Malta, coming under air attack, submarine attack and occasionally surface ship attack, whilst escorting convoys and evacuating civilians.
• Not satisfied with it's short break of not blowing up Italian ships, Warspite then proceeded to escort the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, right off the Italian coast, for the Taranto raid. An air attack on ships in port. 3 Italian battleships sunk or were disabled in the attack, a whole 50% of all Italian battleship's in service.
• Not quite satisfied still, Warspite proceeded to engage once more, this time, the battle of Cape Mattapan, the largest naval battle of the European theatre in WW2.
• As a WW1 battleship, Warspite was slow by WW2 standards, however, a single air attack from the carrier formidable managed to slow down a portion of the Italian fleet, and cause some to go stationary for repairs. The Italians left behind an entire heavy cruiser division.
• In the pitch black, Warspite, with her radar, and 2 of her sister ships, Barham and Valiant, detected the Italian heavy cruisers, and let's just say, the heavy cruisers didn't detect them due to lack of their radar. And against all naval convention, Warspite closed to near point blank range, and open fired. The Barham, Valiant, and for some insane reason, and aircraft carrier formidable with her secondary guns, all followed up. Warspite's 15 inch shells straight up blew one of one of the heavy cruisers gun turret clean over the side of the ship. So fierce was the British fire, that the Italian heavy cruiser squadron wasn't even able to fire once in return.
• Warspite had fatally crippled and sunk heavy cruisers Zara, Pola, and Fiume. 2400 Italian losses for a total of 4 British losses.
• Warspite, having absolutely bullied the Italian fleet, now proceeded to bombard the Italian coastline
• She was then recalled to the eastern med, to help with the defence and evacuation of Greece and of Crete. This is where she came under intense air attacks of the coast. Being used a floating AA battery whilst evacuating men from Crete, Warspite came under heavy bomber attack, and suffered 3 bomb hits, including a bomb hit that went clean through her funnel and detonated in her engine room.
• Damaged by this, Warspite was forced to withdraw from Crete, and made for allied ports for emergency repairs.
• The admiralty, decided Warspite needed some upgrades, and so they sent her to the United States, still neutral, for more modernisation.
• It was here that Japan declared war, and the US pacific fleet was sunk, along with the Prince of Wales and Repulse. Warspite, a pre-ww1 design, was the last remaining allied battleship for a short while in the entire Indian ocean and pacific ocean
• After the collapse of the British army at Singapore, the fall of Hong Kong, the fall of the Dutch east indies, the Darwin raid, the fall of the Philippines, the fall of Siam, and the destruction of the British Eastern fleet including the brand new advanced battleship Prince of Wales and Repulse, Warspite, once receiving some upgrades, set sail, this time to Ceylon.
• With the advancing Japanese force unstoppable, with the most advanced naval aviation in the world, the royal navy being stretched to breaking point across 4 theatres gathered the few battleships it could spare, older obsolete ww1 era warships, and sent them to form a new eastern fleet, with HMS Warspite to be made flagship.
• Warspite led 4 revenge class battleships (all of which were declared unsuitable for frontline service and were due to be replaced before ww2 even started), and 3 aircraft carriers, against the most advanced naval striking force on the planet. Even as an outdated WW1 design, she was sent into battle in a theatre of war that was dominated by the new form of naval warfare, naval strike aircraft
• Warspite naturally despite being hopelessly outmatched, sailed out to fight in the Indian ocean raid, narrowly missing an ambush opportunity during the night. She was only 2km's off engaging with several Japanese battlecruisers, and some carriers
• Naturally, even with modernisation, Warspite was still a ww1 hull. Her internal compartmentalisation, armour geometrics, engine capacity, and overall design is still outdated here. Warspite was modernised slightly, but this didn't negate the hard factors. She was completely outmatched, and in a theatre that was far more advanced and deadly than any other.
• The Japanese crushed the British in the Indian ocean raid, with Ceylon suffering pearl harbour scale strikes, along with the loss of the cruisers Cornwall and Dorsetshire, the aircraft carrier Hermes and the destroyer Vampire. The Royal Navy was forced to retreat, with the slower older ww1 battleships vulnerable to their air attacks
• Warspite having survived the Indian Ocean Raid with it's life, decided why not, and attempted to scrap with the Japanese again. It sailed right up to the coastline of a Japanese controlled island, bombarded the crap out of it, let them send of a signal for reinforcements, to try and lure Japanese forces away, to clear the way for American landings on Guadalcanal. This was called operation stab, and two bomber squadrons flew in.
• Having had it's fun with the Japanese, Warspite now turned it's attention to the French. Long story short, France controlled Madagascar in the Indian ocean. This was right near the entire allied supply lines going into the Mediterranean, and so, there was fears japan would invade and seize it, and use it as a submarine base. So Warspite was sent, along with landing forces, and attacked, seizing the territory from the French.
• Hungry for even more Italian ships now, Warspite now re-entered the Mediterranean. This time, with the bulk of the Royal Navy.
• After running more convoys through to Malta, Warspite was assigned a critical role for operation husky, the invasion of Italy. Now, the Italians still had a very powerful fleet, and so, it was thought any invasion landings would see the Italian fleet come out for a decisive battle, and so the royal navy converged, ready for action, and obviously Warspite was begging for the chance.
• So when the landings went ahead, Warspite carried out heavy coastal bombardment, and proceeded to obliterate the Italian defences, but tragically, no Italian ships came out to engage.
• Italy proceeded to surrender, and the Italian fleet sailed out to surrender to the British Fleet. Warspite was sent, along with several other naval units, to escort these surrendered ships into port. Among them, was the brand new, advanced, larger, more heavily armed, more modern battleship Roma.
• As Warspite sailed them into custody at Malta, the Germans were not sitting idle, and they sent there most heavily experienced and advanced anti shipping air squadrons to intercept, wielding a new type of weapon, the Fritz X, the worlds first ever guided missile.
• As the air attack began, both British and Italian AA put up a fierce barrage, but the aircraft flying at high altitude were unaffected, and proceeded to drop there guided missiles. In an instant, a single missile hit Roma, going clean through. A second followed up, blowing up her main battery magazine. In only a matter of minutes, Roma went down, taking 2000 sailors with her.
• Warspite, a far older, smaller and more primitive design, built in world war 1, designed pre-ww1, when the most advanced aircraft was a biplane, also came under missile attack, and in a devastating strike, a single fritz X missile directly struck Warspite. The damage was critical as you can imagine to her gun turret and one of her engine rooms. Warspite had been hit with a guided missile.
• Somehow, Warspite didn't sink, and even crazier, managed to sail into port under it's own power. With the Italian fleet defeated and surrendered now though, Warspite's job in the med had been done. After undergoing emergency repairs, she sailed out of the region one final time, returning home to Britain.
• It was here, as she returned home, that she became the first allied ship to transit through the straights of dover. Making it to port, heavy repairs got underway, but much of the fritz X bomb damage was severe. An entire gun turret was disabled, and an engine room was also disabled.
• Warspite however, wasn't content waiting around, and so before repairs were even complete, she sailed out, fully stocked on ammunition to the coast of Normandy. Records vary, but Warspite is said to have fired the very first shots on D-Day, or at the very least, the very first British shots. Warspite was leading the naval bombardment.
• Firing of all 1000 of it's 800kg naval shells, Warspite returned to England to restock on ammunition, sailed back to Normandy, and blew the shit out of them again. By the day's end, Warspite had fired so many rounds that her gun barrels actually began to warp. With this, she returned back to the UK, and had these gun barrels replaced.
• For the next few months, Warspite sailed up and down the coastline, providing naval bombardments. Her 15 inch naval guns fired 800kg shells, at 750m's per second, up to a range of about 25km. 8 guns (6 after the fritz X missile), each putting out 2 rounds per minute. needless to say, she absolutely crushed any German forces who ventured to close to the coastline.
• With Germany on the verge of collapse, the German surface fleet gone, the Italian navy gone, and Italy having surrendered, Warspite's role in Europe was over.
• Only Japan remained, but at this stage, Warspite's age was showing. In an era of naval aviation, of carrier strike forces travelling at 28 knots+, where speed was critical and naval gunfire less so, the Warspite, being a great war era design, where deck armour, compartmentalisation, and those sorts of speeds was not possible, Warspite's design was not suitable for that theatre. Not when the Royal Navy had the King George V, Duke of York, Anson, Howe, and Vanguard. And when they considered the damage Warspite had sustained, a gun turret disabled, and an engine room out of action, now having a top speed of between 15-19 knots, no amount of modernisation could change the basic hull design from the keel up, or change these limitations.
• With this, Warspite after two world wars, suffering the combined firepower of the second largest naval force on the planet for an hour in the largest dreadnought battle in history, having suffered endless air attacks, naval gunfire, and even a guided missile hit, having fought Germany in ww1 and ww2, Italy in WW2, and Japan in WW2, having operated in every single theatre of the war, being at every major British naval battle, Warspite, a ship designed to remain in service for no more than 20 years at an extreme push, finally, after having served for 30 years, was sent to the reserve fleet, and eventually sent to the scrapyard
• Funnily enough, Warspite wasn't going to go quietly into the breakers yard, and when being towed on route, the tow cable snapped, and she drifted away, eventually beaching herself at Prussia Cove. efforts to refloat her failed, and so began the largest salvaging operating in British history at that time, where they brought the scrapyard to Warspite. After 10 years, Warspite was no more.

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HMS Warspite's Spotter Aircraft service history

Yes, even it's spotter aircraft is legendary in of itself.

• Warspite's Spotter Aircraft alerted the British force at Narvik to a hiding German destroyer. An insanely dangerous location for spotter aircraft to operate in. The destroyer didn't make it.
• Warspite's spotter aircraft then proceeded to spot a U-boat, and decided then would be a good time to go submarine hunting, and dropped a random depth charge on it, scoring the very first aerial U-boat kill of the entire war. This meant for a very short while, Warspite was the most effective aircraft carrying ship of the war, outdoing actual aircraft carriers at that moment in time.
• The spotter aircraft at the battle of Calabria then proceeded to fly over the entire Italian battle fleet throughout the entirety of the battle, and the Italians couldn't shoot it down at all no matter how much they tried. It just hovered above them, much to there annoyance, and provided artillery spotting data back to Warspite, helping it achieve the longest ranged hit in naval gunnery history.
• It's spotter aircraft, an old obsolete design, was pretty much absolutely unhinged and quite mad, and somehow worked insanely well.

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Design

Warspite was the second Queen Elizabeth class battleship constructed, a truly ground breaking design. Ordered in 1912, this whole design was the final culmination of the Anglo German naval arms race. For a long time, it was a case of Britain built a ship, Germany built a counter, and Britain would counter that, over and over. Some dreadnoughts became obsolete within mere years. So the government proceeded to hand the admiralty a blank check to built a series of dreadnoughts to end the naval arms race once and for all. And so the Queen Elizabeth's were designed. They were an experimental design, completely oil powered, being the first Royal Navy vessels to be so, and were groundbreaking.

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Her main battery guns were the first 15 inch guns ever mounted upon a battleship, designed specifically for this class (becoming the most successful naval gun in history), her fire control directors were the most advanced in the world when entering service, and her speed was something that was unprecedented on a superdreadnought, at 25 knots. Her turret arrangement was more advanced than prior classes, and her armour belt was modified to provide a solid amount of armour protection in dreadnought engagements. In other words, these essentially became the apex of WW1 battleships. Ground breaking in every single way.

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But by world war 2, her age was showing. New design scheme's such as the all or nothing armour approach had been introduced. The increased advancements in long range naval gunfire, and increased advances in aircraft meant that deck armour was now just as critical, if not more critical, than main armour belts. Torpedo defence systems had evolved to counter more powerful torpedoes in play, and internal ship compartmentalisation had been dramatically improved. The threats had changed, and ship designing had evolved with it. The top speed of new capital ships entering service in WW2 was far greater than previous, at 28 knots plus, with ship displacements of 45,000-76,000 tonnes. So by WW2's standards, Warspite had become outdated.

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In theatres such the Med, where naval aviation was not very advanced and battle line engagements were fought, they were incredibly useful. For coastal bombardment too. But in the far east, naval warfare was advanced. Far more advanced than any other theatre. Naval Aviation ruled the skies, as was seen with the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse, and the destruction of 8 battleships at pearl harbour. Carrier battles determined that theatre, and Warspite, was neither fast enough, or designed for air attacks to engage effectively.

So, as you might know, i have made a lot of ww2 minecraft ship models. And i've decided to post most of them here, with a brief rundown of each ship, and it's fate. If you have any questions, or are curious about any of the ships, maybe wanting to see what there internal layouts are, or you want to see anything in particular or know something about the ships not mentioned, ask away! The way i'll do this is i'll pick a ship daily, or you can recommend one, I'll show my in game minecraft make of it, and then write about it and it's service history after.

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Today, I'm doing HMS Repulse.

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So, these are some screenshots of HMS Repulse I made in Minecraft. Tell me what you think of it. I took them in night and day, rain and clear weather, and from different angles.

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The Minecraft Build

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Probably the funniest thing is that it's so big, it actually takes 3 maps just to fully display it.

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Historical Information about Repulse

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HMS Repulse, built in 1916, was one of two renown class battlecruisers, and was the fastest battlecruiser in the world, with the heaviest firepower. She came in at 32,000 tonnes, and wielded 6 15 inch main battery guns, and could reach a speed of 32 knots. Completely outclassing her counterparts, Repulse took part in World War One, during the second battle of the Heligoland bight, served in 1st battlecruiser squadron, and oversaw the surrender of the German high sea's fleet. In the interwar years, Repulse took part in the Empire tour, visiting all corners of the empire, and finally took part in the weapons blockade of Spain during the Spanish civil war.

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By the outbreak of WW2, Repulse whilst incredibly old, was still a powerful unit, and one of the most important ships the royal navy possessed due to her speed, and the firepower she could bring at those speeds. Her WW2 service began with the home fleet, patrolling the North Sea, and the North Atlantic. Repulse served during the Norway campaign, and then attempted to hunt two German battlecruisers loose in the Atlantic, with no success. Following this, Repulse took part in the hunt for the Bismarck. This marked the end of her Atlantic service, and within months, the admiralty would deploy her to the far east to challenge the increasingly aggressive posturing of Japan.

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Escorting a convoy on route to the far east, she arrived at Singapore, alongside the newest and premier battleship of the Royal Navy, HMS Prince of Wales. Japans movements became even more aggressive around the region however, with Japanese landing force convoys sighted from the air, and submarine patrols nearby. Repulse's planned cruise to Australia, nearby in the region was cancelled. Overnight, Singapore came under a long range Japanese bomber attack, and Commander in Chief of the Eastern fleet Admiral Tom Phillips learnt that Pearl Harbour had been bombed, Japanese forces had advanced on Hong Kong, Japanese forces were landing in British Malaya, and that Britain was now at war with the empire of Japan.

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Forming up the naval units he had into a single strike force unit, Phillips brought to bear 4 destroyers, and battleships Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse. With the RAF losing the air war meaning no air cover, and the British Army pushed back at the landing zones, Phillips sent force Z out, intent on launching a surprise attack on the Japanese landings in progress. Tragically, Force Z was sighted by a patrolling submarine nearby, which reported it's location. A follow up scout aircraft sighted the force once again, and the Royal Navy realised it's hopes of launching a surprise attack on the convoy was slim to none now. Turning back, force Z took a detour after reports came in of a Japanese landing in Kuantan, and when they arrived, it was realised to be a false report, with destroyer Electra reporting "complete peace".

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As force Z moved to return to Singapore, Prince of Wales detected a squadron of japanese aircraft coming towards them on it air search radar. Crews were called to action stations, and Repulse accelerated to 25 knots, to keep formation with Prince of Wales, and was the first to be targeted. A squadron of high level bombers, carrying 500lb bombs, focused on the battlecruiser, rightly assuming it had thinner armour. The majority of the bombs missed repulse, but one struck her directly amidships, blowing up in it's port spotter plane hangar. No critical damage was done thankfully. Repulse's captain, William Tennant, then began to manoeuvre repulse sharply. A squadron of torpedo bombers moved in towards Repulse and released there payloads. Tennant's swung repulse around, between the tracks of the incoming torpedoes, causing every launched torpedo to miss. A second wave then came in, once again, going for Repulse, and once again, Captain Tennant manoeuvred repulse sharply, causing all torpedoes to miss the battlecruiser. Repulse, a 32,000 tonne capital ship was being manoeuvred around like she was a light cruiser. Most of the crew couldn't believe it nor could the Japanese, that a battlecruiser of Repulse's size was pulling off such insane evasive manoeuvres.

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At this stage, Prince of Wales was critically damaged, and repulse was almost entirely unscathed. Now, Repulse was once again the primary target, and the Japanese split into several attack formations, coming in from different sides so captain Tennant couldn't manoeuvre his way out of them. Repulse's AA, designed in an era of biplanes was not able to put up an effective defence, and so repulse suffered two torpedo strikes to her aft. In an instant, Repulse, being built in an era before torpedo protection belts, had her steering motors jammed, and she was then stuck turning in a circle. As repulses crew desperately tried to defend it with it's AA, they were able to shoot down a small handful of aircraft, but it was a small consolation. 2 more torpedoes struck directly from her starboard side, smashing her engine rooms and causing catastrophic flooding. Repulse listed to port and and looked done for. 6 more Japanese torpedo bombers moved in against the now dead in the water and critically flooding battlecruiser whilst it couldn't move, and landed one further torpedo strike, sending shockwaves through the ship.

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All the Japanese torpedo bombers had now completed their attack runs, but several squadrons of high level bombers remained, carrying a single huge, 1000lb armour piercing bomb. The final attack runs on repulse began, but thankfully, all missed well off target. At this stage, the destroyers Electra and Express appeared on the horizon, finally coming to the aid of the catastrophically listing ships. Captain Tennant gave one final order, ordering a complete abandon ship. Despite her amazing performance, Repulse was still a WW1 era battlecruiser, built in an era of bi-planes, facing the most well trained anti naval bombers in the world in world war two. Most of the ships power was lost, so most of the loudspeakers were not working, and most of the crew never heard the order to abandon ship. As repulse listed even more, many crew managed to jump into the waters around the battlecruiser, and within minutes, the Repulse, a 32,000 tonne battlecruiser, a 25 year veteran of the first world war, and once the most powerful battlecruiser in the world, slipped below the waves.

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Of HMS Repulse's 1236 man crew, 513 were killed in her sinking. The loss of Repulse, 1 of two remaining battlecruisers, along with the loss of HMS Prince of Wales, was called by Churchill, the single greatest shock of the entire war. Two capital ships lost in a single day, let alone, it's greatest battlecruiser and it's premier battleship. It also marked the destruction of the British eastern fleet, and the first time ever that capital ships had been sunk by airpower alone out at sea. Singapore would fall in the worst defeat in the history of the British army mere weeks after this loss, and the Malaya barrier would collapse entirely. Captain Tennant survived the sinking, co-ordinated rescue efforts of crew from the water, and went on to never command a ship again, instead taking charge of the logistics on D-Day. Surprisingly, If you've ever seen the movie Dunkirk, the admiral played by Kenneth Branagh, is actually inspired by Repulse's captain, William Tennant.

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