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My Minecraft WW2 Fleet
Nathan
Community Connector Posts: 3,366 Boards Guru
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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Comments
@Nathan Thank you so much for all of this, I think sharing pictures of your ship creations and information about them is a brilliant idea!
The HMS Repulse designs that you have done are amazing as always, especially the ones in the dark as I imagine the lights are difficult to make? Maybe I'm wrong, but either way they're all brilliant models!
It sounds like HMS Repulse was a strong and successful ship in her prime and throughout the second World War. It's a shame to read of it's eventual fate with all of those bombings and it sinking, that must have been such a shock at the time. It sounds like it still holds a legacy in the marines today, I'm wondering whether it's inspired any modern-day ships?
@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.
Also wanted to hype up these models and just say… WOW - the detail and stuff is insane 😮😊
@Nathan Thanks again for sharing all of this. It must have taken so much time and effort to do this with the scale of the ship as well as the tricky lighting too.
It sounds like the Repulse was a powerful unit of a ship until it's unlucky ending at the same time as the Prince of Wales, I can imagine that was a huge day in naval history. It's a shame that no ships today are based off of the Repulse, but I suppose that makes her even more unique, the last of her kind if that makes sense. Is that something you'd agree with @Nathan?
Looking forward to seeing the next ship and learning more about it!
Thank you for this @Nathan , it was a very interesting read. I was wondering if you could say a bit more info on the weapons blockade during Spanish Civil War?
@Owen thank you very much.
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So, whilst the Spanish civil war raged, an international agreement was put in place to prevent arms shipments to either side. Now, in reality, weapons were smuggled in anyway, but the royal navy, with plenty of free time on it's hands in the interwar years committed a large naval force to patrol the coastline.
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So the idea was, royal navy destroyers, light cruisers and heavy cruisers would be deployed 24/7 on patrol, which were more numerous, high speed, and economical with fuel use than battleships. And should they encounter an arms shipment, they could turn them away by themselves. However, there was major concerns at the time about Italy. See, contrary to belief, the single biggest European naval threat in the interwar years was not Germany, but Italy. Italy had a large and powerful navy, the Regia Marina, that vastly outnumbered Germany's, and as such, there was a real danger that Italy, if it chose to, could easily send a heavy cruiser or two to back up an arms shipment had a royal navy patrol attempted to send it away, overwhelming the lighter british units.
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As a result, the royal navy needed a strong contingency plan to back up there patrolling units. A capital ship that was fast, could show up quickly, keep pace with enemy cruisers, and was also strong enough to blow them out of the water if needed, and Repulse and her sister Renown fit this profile perfectly. As a result, Repulse was sort of the ultimate deterrent. If Italy sent a Zara class heavy cruiser, or Germany a Deutschland class heavy cruiser, to overwhelm a royal navy patrol, the royal navy had a 32,000 tonne monster ready to intervene at a moments notice. And should that happen, the question wouldn't be "would the cruisers be able to escape?", it would be "how high up will the cruisers gun turrets be blown by Repulse". And no this isn't an exaggeration, the same 15 inch guns repulse wielded, Warspite has used later in WW2 to blow the cruiser Zara's gun turret clean over the side of the ship.
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To put it simply, Repulse was the hard power behind the blockade, a projection of total strength, a fast response unit, and a clear message that any attempts to push through the blockade by force, would be met with force.
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Now, about the blockade as a whole, the main issue was that nobody stuck to this international agreement anyway, and so nations like Italy and Germany were sending arms to Franco's fascists, and the USSR and International Brigades were sending arms to the Republicans. All of which was done whilst evading detection through various means, rather than outright attempts to use force which would be met with Repulse. Arms intended for Spain were sent to Portugal, and the moment they were unloaded, were sent across the border into Spain. Arms were disguised as "agricultural equipment" and more to get through inspections and were missed during patrols. So the blockades overall usefulness was pretty much zero sadly. But it gave the royal navy something to do in 1936-1939.
@Callum sadly the era of naval airpower took over towards the second half of WW2, and so large battleships and battlecruisers stopped being critical ships, which they were before, and were phased out slowly, so sadly, not many ships today, in the era of missiles, are inspired by ships from WW2.
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Repulse was very much unique as a whole. Originally, it was actually not even a battlecruiser. It was laid down as a Revenge class dreadnought. At the outbreak of war, when resources were taken from the Royal Navy and directed towards the Army, the admiralty reviewed the ships under construction it had. Of 8 Revenge class battleships, 5 were either complete, or close to complete, the 6th and the 7th were just laid down, and the 8th hadn't even started. And here's the critical thing. The royal navy had more dreadnoughts than germany in WW1, but only an even number of battlecruisers. And so the admiralty, with limited resources decided to halt construction of the 6th and the 7th, and convert them from the Revenge class dreadnoughts, into Renown class battlecruisers. Repulse was the 7th ship. The 8th, HMS Resistance, was outright cancelled.
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And so, Repulse, was unique in that it was originally a dreadnought, was modified halfway through construction into a battlecruiser, was arguably the most powerful and advanced battlecruiser along with her sistership Renown, and was the last of it's ship class. Many naval historians consider HMS Hood to be the first fast battleship, rather than the last battlecruiser, and so by many standards, Repulse was actually the final battlecruiser ever designed, and constructed for the Royal Navy too. And she had a truly special role in both world wars. Repulse was the first ship to arrive at the River Plate, trapping the Graf Spee in port, served in all the theatres i mentioned above, and had a truly unique service history. It's combination of speed, and firepower made it incredibly valuable, even 25 years after it's construction. And it's sinking was a truly unique loss too, given the nature of it's sinking to air power. As far as unique goes, nearly everything from it's design, construction, service and fate absolutely can be called that. I agree 100% it's unique.
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:
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HMS Warspite's Spotter Aircraft service history
Yes, even it's spotter aircraft is legendary in of itself.
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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.
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.
I forgot to mention, the same 15 inch bl mark 1 naval guns designed and built for the Queen Elizabeth class battleships like Warspite, went on to be used on the Revenge class superdreadnoughts, the Renown class battlecruisers like Repulse, and the Courageous class, Admiral class battleships like Hood, Monitors, and finally the final British battleship, HMS Vanguard. They saw service between 1915, and 1960, and it's fair to say was the single most successful naval gun ever designed. All coming into existence because of ships like Warspite.
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(also, i worked out what the word cap is on the mix. It's 20000 characters 😂)
Hey @Nathan, thank you as always for sharing such detailed information, and sorry for my late reply! The images of HMS Warspite that you've done are brilliant, as they always are, and it really helps to have a picture of the ship in mind when reading through the information. I really admire the level of detail and the different settings in daylight, in the dark and with the lights on, really well done for making them!
In terms of the information you've included about Warspite, it sounds like such a strong and powerful vessel that had significant speed for its size. It was interesting to read through it's survival of various different conflicts, such as against the Grand Fleet, attacks from Italian battleships, being under attack in Greece and in the Indian Ocean Raid. It's survival rate was definitely something to be proud of! And for it's longevity in it's service, being built in the dreadnought era and used in both WW1 and WW2 is incredible, I didn't know anything about that! The information about Warspite's spotter aircraft was interesting too, as I feel like that's something that's regularly overlooked.
I appreciate you continuing to educate us on all of this, as they say you learn something new everyday. I'm eager to see what ships you choose to tell us more about next!
So, i don't know how to do polls, but i'll let you decide the next ship: HMS Electra, HMS Jupiter, HMS Exeter, HMS Prince of Wales, USS Houston, HMAS Perth
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Or i can do entire WW2 Naval battles: 1st Battle of Java Sea, 2nd Battle of Java Sea, Mers El Kabir (Sinking of the French Fleet), Battle of Sunda Strait
Hey @Nathan, I'm not really sure about these ships but I'm going to choose HMS Prince of Wales as I remember that one being mentioned a few times so would be good to hear more about it!
So, HMS Prince of Wales had probably the shortest service history of any royal navy capital ship, beating out HMS Queen Mary, by not even making it a single year, and having the most tragic end.
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Minecraft Build
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-I added fire control directors on the one below-
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Ship Information and Service History
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Washington Naval Treaty
It's impossible to go over the Prince of Wales, without going over the Washington Naval Conference and London Naval Treaty. So in essence, post WW1, the Royal Navy with massive funding cuts, and the near bankrupt British government wanted to avoid an expensive naval arms race between the United States, Japan, and itself, which it likely couldn't have won. And so British diplomats aimed rather than building at the same pace adversaries did, at restricting the construction of new battleships instead globally.
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And so, a conference was called, in which British diplomats offered concessions, in exchange for a ban on the construction of new battleships for all nations, for 10 years, which was extended by a further 5 years.
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The consequences were dire. Britain was allowed to keep 525,000 tonnes of capital ships, and the US Navy would be allowed the exact same amount. Parity, for the first time since before Nelson. As a result, 1/4 of the British fleet was sent to the scrapyard instantly. Cruiser strength was restricted heavily too. This was perhaps the biggest loss ever suffered by the royal navy in one single go. But it allowed Britain to retain parity without massive spending post war.
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And this is where HMS Prince of Wales comes into it. See, by 1937, many of the WW1 era ships pre treaty were aging, and some, like the Revenge class, needed outright replacement, and so the London Naval Treaty was signed. Battleships could be constructed once again, but the 525,000 tonne capital ship combined limit remained. And for individual ships, it was even heavier. The maximum displacement was 35,000 tonnes of any one capital ship, and the maximum gun calibre was 14 inches, tiny compared to previous gun calibres and previous battleship displacements, such as hood at 50,000 tonnes. Armour, firepower, speed, size, and strength were all heavily hindered by this on what we now call the treaty battleships.
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Unfortunately, the British were the only ones to stick to this treaty.
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Design
So with these restrictions in place, HMS Prince of Wales had a very difficult and limited design. She was built as a 10 X 14 inch gun armed, 35,000 tonne battleship with a top speed of 28 knots, which on paper, was not impressive at all.
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She was originally designed with 3 quadruple gun turrets, but the Admiralty removed one and replaced it with a duel turret in order to meet the restrictions of the London Naval Treaty, further hindering it's firepower.
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Now ironically, HMS Prince of Wales, despite these limits, was built as an amazing ship. British designers worked wonders with what they had. They shortened the length of the ship, and concentrated the limited armour over a smaller overall area, used the advanced all or nothing armour scheme approach. As a result, Prince of Wales had the second thickest armour belt of any battleship in history, despite it's small displacement, having armour comparable if not superior to 76,000 tonne monsters like Yamato. In terms of main battery guns, designers modified the shells, and increased the shell velocity, rate of fire, and fire control directors for more accurate shooting, making the 14 inch guns operate on the level of 15 or even 16 inch guns in combat. The steel they used was 25% stronger than the next closest nation for steel quality, Germany, and they compacted the engines, giving Prince of Wales a high top speed of 28 knots. Her torpedo protection belt was built to withstand torpedo blasts of over 750lb's, and her AA systems heavily relied on British made "Pom Pom" guns, and it's high calibre duel purpose secondary guns, with radar guided fire control systems.
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Overall, Prince of Wales was an engineering miracle for it's displacement, and limitations.
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Construction Woes
When Britain started battleship construction again, it's industry had taken a massive hit. Between 1922, and 1937, no new battleships were constructed, under the terms of the Washington naval treaty. So by 1937, Britain's entire fleet was WW1 era warships. So when construction restarted, Britain's now limited naval industry had been heavily crippled and could only put out battleships at 1/5th of the rate it did in WW1. And so, by 1940, the first modern battleship of WW2, HMS King George V was built. And her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales in 1941.
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Firstly, came the collapse of the treaty. By 1938, Japan had refused to sign, and unknown to the US and UK, were secretly building a 76,000 tonne behemoth. To British and American designers, it appeared as though japan was simply not signing the treaty, and so the whole treaty was pointless. The US cancelled their planned treaty battleships to construct the North Carolina's, but for the Admiralty, with war on the horizon, it was too late to cancel. And so a few modifications were made taking the design up to 40,000 tonne displacement, and construction resumed.
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And from here, Prince of Wales had a much more eventful construction. The dockyard she was constructed at came under concentrated German bomber attack. As a result, as soon as it was sea worthy, the Admiralty ordered Prince of Wales north, to Scapa Flow, to finish it's construction up there, out of air attack range.
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Sea trials was supposed to follow, but history went a different way. This would come back to haunt HMS Prince of Wales.
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Fighting the Bismarck (Battle of the Denmark Strait)
Fast forward to May 1941, the Admiralty are informed that the Prinz Eugen and Bismarck had set sail at flank speed and were making a break for the Atlantic through Denmark strait. The King George V was too far away, Nelson and Rodney were too slow. Repulse and Renown to lightly armoured. And so the admiralty, without having many options that met all three of those requirements, ordered HMS Prince of Wales to follow HMS Hood and to intercept.
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For reference, Prince of Wales still had her civilian construction crew onboard. Her aft gun did not work due to being not calibrated, and her crew had not had any experience with her or training on the ship. Prince of Wales also lacked any sea trials, which was unheard of with battleships, and was going into the battle half ready.
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But on Paper, Hood and Prince of Wales were the only ships close enough, fast enough, well armoured and armed enough, to actually sink the Bismarck, and so it was an easy choice. 2 battleships (one fresh out of the factory and not fully complete), vs 1 battleship and a heavy cruiser. The Royal Navy had the clear advantage, and so they sailed out.
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Until, out of nowhere, minutes into the engagement, as the British were winning the gunnery battle, to everybody's horror, HMS Hood blew up in flames and split clean in two. The 50,000 tonne warship sank within 3 minutes taking 1412 men with her, with only 3 survivors. The pride of the fleet suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion.
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Prince of Wales (40,000 tonnes) was now alone, outnumbered, outgunned, outmatched, and demoralised. Despite this, HMS Prince of Wales continued to engage for a further 15 minutes, even closing range to the point of Prinz Eugen preparing torpedo tubes. She took several hits, including one to the bridge that killed most of the bridge staff, but with another malfunction in B turret, and with the battle clearly going one way, the Prince of Wales set a smoke screen, and withdrew, but not before firing off return shots, one of which struck Bismarck on target, penetrated it's main armour belt, and caused a large fuel leak. Bismarck no longer had the range or fuel reserves to carry out it's mission anymore, effectively what is called a mission kill, and so headed for occupied France where it was sunk on route, by King George V and Rodney.
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Prince of Wales withdrew from the battle, shadowed the force, then returned to England for repairs and refuelling.
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The Situation in August 1941
So, to understand what comes next, it's important to understand what the situation was in August 1941 for the Admiralty. The royal navy had two modern battleships, King George V and Prince of Wales in service, and an assortment of WW1 era vintage battleships, that lacked the speed and modern armour layouts and hull designs of the 1930's. The Royal Navy had commitments in the North Atlantic, the North Sea, the Home islands, the Artic convoys, the Eastern med, Western Med, Malta Convoys, as well as commitments at Gibraltar, the southern Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and to keep North Africa supplied, and so this was a critical situation. The Royal navy had increasingly relied on it's WW1 dreadnoughts in the Med, but it was clear more was needed.
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Against it, stood the Italian Navy and the German Navy. Now the main surface vessel threat was the second Bismarck class battleship Tirpitz in the north sea, and the two modern Italian Littorio class battleships in the Med. Plus an assortment of weaker WW1 era dreadnoughts, and fast heavy cruiser raiders. So, the situation was dire. First priority went to the home fleet, and second, to the Med. Slower WW1 ships for convoy escort duties, faster WW1 ships for Med operations, and Modern battleships for the home fleet.
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In mid 1941, Japan invaded and seized French Indochina. Their military operations stepped up in the region, and it appeared as though war was on the horizon. Now Britain's position in the far east was weak. It had no major surface fleet, as it had all been picked away into other theatres. The long promised eastern fleet didn't exist, and so if Japan was to strike with it's third largest Navy in the world, the Royal Navy would be powerless.
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Deploying Prince of Wales to the Far East
Prince of Wales new role came up for fierce debate. The British Home Fleet already had the King George V, one modern battleship, to counter the Germans one remaining modern battleship, Tirpitz. The British Mediterranean fleet however had 0 modern battleships, to the Italian 2 at this stage (relying on older outdated and outclassed ww1 battleships). However, proposals to send Prince of Wales to the Med were quickly shot down. Admiral Tovey cited King George V's poor heat ventilation in the Atlantic, suggesting it was a bad idea to send Prince of Wales (the same class) into warmer climates. However, with Japan growing increasingly aggressive, Winston Churchill made a fateful decision.
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Create a long promised Eastern Fleet at Singapore, to deter further Japanese aggression. When Anthony Eden argued it may deter Japan from even declaring war, and against the admiralty's desires, the decision was made. Prince of Wales was to head to Singapore, to become the flagship of the long promised eastern fleet, with battlecruiser Repulse in support.
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This was far from the large battlefleet that had been envisioned, but with war against Italy and Germany in full swing, Britain could only do so much with what they had. A fast, advanced force. In Churchills eye's, acting like and i quote, "A British Bismarck", acting as an elusive menace, and tying up a disproportionate number of Japanese ships. Along with Prince of Wales and Repulse, the carrier HMS Indomitable was also deployed, along with 4 destroyers. But in a tragic turn of events, Indomitable struck a reef on route, and had to undergo repairs.
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This left Prince of Wales, Repulse, and the 4 destroyers. After a large long range bomber attack in Singapore, Admiral Phillips, C&C of the eastern fleet, was finally informed that Pearl harbour had been bombed, Malaya was being invaded and that Britain was now at war with the empire of Japan.
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Beginning of the End of HMS Prince of Wales
With Reported landings up north, Force Z, despite being outnumbered in the region, departed Singapore intent on intercepting any follow up landings. With the element of surprise, Philips was hoping to carry out of strike against any Japanese transports, to hinder the invasion, who would not be expecting to have battleships set upon them.
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Under thick cloud cover shielding Force Z from the air, complete radio silence, and no sightings of them heading out to sea, Phillips was not wrong for assuming he could carry out such an attack, conditions being what they were. Also adding to the frenzy, Phillips had been informed by British intellegence that no Japanese torpedo bombers were in the region, and that based on assumptions in the North Sea and Mediterean, no air attacks could be launched more than 200 miles away from the coastline. They were 300 miles away. But all of this went catastrophically wrong.
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On day 1, Force Z was spotted by a patrolling Japanese submarine, relaying its position to Japanese high command. A Japanese torpedo bomber squadron, the most highly skilled and experienced in the world, was then flown in almost immediately after. The aircraft themselves had very little armour in exchange for greater ranges, which would come as a shock to British forces. By the second day, the clouds had shifted, and there was no longer any cover from aerial reconnaissance. Spotted once again by a Japanese spotter plane this time, Phillips realised that the element of surprise had been fully lost, and any attack would now be pointless, and so he gave the order to return to Singapore.
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To make matters worse, Prince of Wales had not undergone sea trials, and had not been tested in the far east before. And so, the high humidity of the region caused a lot of technical issues. The radar on the Prince of Wales worked erratically due to it, as did fire control directors. Even the 40mm pom pom AA guns hadn't been fully tested. Prince of Wales also was not carrying any tracer AA rounds.
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But in Philips mind, he was out of range of Japanese aircraft, never before had a battleship been sunk on the open sea's by aircraft, and there was no torpedo bombers in the area.
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HMS Prince of Wales And Repulse Sunk
Before long, Prince of Wales erratic radar finally began to work, admittedly unreliably, but it was able to detect an incoming bomber squadron. Captain Leach immediately ordered the ships crew to action stations, as she made for flank speed.
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The initial focus of the attack was on HMS Repulse, as she had far less armour than Prince of Wales, but it wasn't long before the torpedo bomber squadrons raced in. Admiral Phillips was horrified. Prince of Wales AA guns all started firing in a frenzy. 10 X 14 inch main battery guns, 8 X 5.25 inch high calibre secondary guns, 24 X 40mm Pom Pom guns, and 12 X 20mm Oerlikon guns all starting hailing steel against the incoming torpedo bombers, with several aircraft getting downed, but not before several torpedoes were launched. Prince of Wales attempted to evade, but it was too late, and a torpedo struck her aft propeller shaft.
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They didn't know this at the time, but Prince of Wales fate was now sealed. Striking outside the torpedo protection belt, the blast knocked the strut arms holding the rotating shaft in place loose. Instead of turning in place, Prince of Wales rotating shaft was now oscillating, each spin deforming the bulkheads around it, destroying the stuffing glands, and ripping open a path for water into the very heart of the ship. Immediately, Prince of Wales speed collapsed, from 28 knots, to 6 knots, and steering motors were disabled.
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As several engine rooms flooded rapidly, half the ships power was instantly cut. The high calibre AA gun motors ceased to move rendering them useless, half the power to the lights, ventilation and emergency pumps was also lost. Prince of Wales took a catastrophic list to port, as over 10,000 tonnes of water flooded the ship.
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As Prince of Wales fought for it's life, the second attack wave came in against her raised starboard side. Captain Leach ordered as many spare men as he could onto deck, firing bolt action rifles and whatever they could, but it was too late. Three torpedoes came straight in. The first struck her bow, the force of the blast pulling sailors under and out of the ships. The second struck directly under B turret, causing a massive column of water and oil to shoot up, and the third, struck near her aft. All struck on the torpedo protection belt fortunately, and the damage was relatively minimal, but the situation for Prince of Wales had worsened.
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As Repulse fought her last stand, eventually the Japanese caught up, and came from all sides. After relentless attacks, Repulse was sunk (see Repulse's piece). As Repulse went down, Prince of Wales came under yet another attack, this time from high level bombers carrying massive 1000lb armour piercing bombs. As the attack wave came in, the prince of wales, now dead in the water, with her high altitude AA guns disabled, was helpless. A single 1000lb bomb struck her amidship, penetrating her deck and blowing up in a makeshift casualty station, adding to the chaos.
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Despite the catastrophic flooding and list that not even counterflooding could level out, Captain Leach rallied his men together, and desperately tried to save his ship. Within 10 minutes, it became clear that no matter what help arrived now, the ship was lost, and so Captain Leach gave the final order to abandon ship, just as a squadron of RAF fighters arrived on scene, to late for the battle and to late to save the Prince of Wales and Repulse.
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Captain Leach, Admiral Phillips and 317 men died, and one of only two modern battleships of the royal navy had been lost. Force Z was lost.
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The Collapse of the Allied Navy's in the Far East
It's hard to put into words the scale of the catastrophe that the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse had on the UK. This event, paired with the fall of Singapore can be considered the moment the British Empire collapsed in the far east, and the moment the Royal Navy lost it's title of ruling the wave's, after over 150 years.
After this, the Largest vessel sent to the region was Heavy cruiser HMS Exeter and 3 destroyers, Electra, Encounter, and Jupiter. They linked up with the Australian Navy, the Dutch Navy and portions of the US Navy to form one final defence of Java. Electra and Jupiter were sunk, as was the entire Dutch Navy in the first battle of Java Sea, with Exeter critically damaged. The following day, the remainder of the allied forces were hunted, Exeter and Encounter at the second battle of Java Sea, and Houston and Perth at Sunda Strait.
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Field Marshal Archibald Wavel proceeded to evacuate Java, as did the few surviving allied ships. From this point on, the Royal Navy had lost the Pacific, and would not return for several years. The Darwin raid followed, with the Royal Navy powerless to stop the Japanese attack on Australia. For a short while, it even appeared as though invasion was on the Horizon. A large reason why Australia moved towards independence lies with the UK's powerlessness to defend Australia during it's darkest hour.
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The allied position in south east Asia rapidly collapsed, and with the fall of Singapore, the fall of Burma, the Indian ocean raid, the Royal Navy was forced to withdraw with it's remaining forces, only re-entering the theatre in 1944.
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The New HMS Prince of Wales
Ironically, the name HMS Prince of Wales wasn't retired, in the same way HMS Hood's namesake was. It seemed ironic that the last HMS Prince of Wales was a battleship lost to airpower, and that the new Prince of Wales itself, is an aircraft carrier. Not only that, but one of two capital ships of the royal navy in service today.
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As for the previous Prince of Wales, her wreckage was looted from the sea floor by scrappers and looters recently, as well as the remains of the sailors.
Unfortunately, the toggle bars didn't work, so i've used spoilers instead, to stop text overwhelming the screen. And i hit the character limit again!
I'm happy to answer any questions you have, or move onto a different ship if you want
Hey @Nathan, sorry for the delayed response, I've been taking my time to read through all of the information you have provided. First of all, the pictures are really creative and it's so talented that you make these, they really help to visualise all of the information you have shared!
I was so interested to read about HMS Prince of Wales having the shortest serving history of any Royal Navy capital ship. It sounds like it was a welcome edition to the Navy after the Washington Naval Treaty, but it's so unfortunate that the restrictions posed by the treaty impacted it's design, especially when the treaty was broken by so many. I'm pleased to hear that the design was still managed to be useful, especially it's armour, and the increase to 40,000 tonnes after the treaty collapsed. It's good to hear HMS Prince of Wales was moved out of the way of German bomber attacks, especially reading how important this ship became!
It's so unfortunate that HMS Prince of Wales ended up being alone and outnumbered in the Battle of Denmark Strait and had to be returned for repairs; but it seems this was important following the situation in August 1941 when being deployed to the Far East. I'm hearing that there was a lot expected of HMS Prince of Wales when deployed out in the Far East, and the situations made it extremely difficult for the ship to survive without technical issues. On top of that, the attacks on HMS Prince of Wales felt so unfortunate, the sinking of such a powerful ship at the time in an environment it could not fully operate in feels unfair.
It's so good to hear that HMS Prince of Wales has inspired an aircraft carrier now (ironically, as you say, after being lost to airpower), but so frustrating that the wreckage was looted from the sea floor. It was so interesting to find out that this was what led to the collapse of the British Empire in the Far East and in Australia gaining their independence from Britain, I didn't know that at all!
Thanks for sharing all of this @Nathan, I really appreciate the information which I didn't know before. Looking forward to the next one!