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HMS ''Prince of Wales'' was a ''King George V''-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England. She was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the battle of Denmark Strait against the German battleship ''Bismarck'', operations escorting convoys in the Mediterranean, and her final action and sinking in the Pacific in 1941. ''Prince of Wales'' first encountered the Germans while being outfitted in her drydock, being attacked and damaged by German aircraft. She was heavily involved in the first contact with the German battleship ''Bismarck'' and the cruiser ''Prinz Eugen'', and landed 3 hits on ''Bismarck'' including two critical hits, one which caused extensive flooding forward, and another which exploded under ''Bismarcks armour belt causing machinery damage, the combined effect of both hits caused her to make the ill-fated decision to return to port.〔(Asmussen, John. The Bismarck Escapes )〕 ''Prince of Wales'' suffered heavy damage during the engagement and had to return to Rosyth to be repaired. ''Prince of Wales'' transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Newfoundland Conference with US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. On 25 October 1941, ''Prince of Wales'' departed for Singapore to join Force Z, a British naval detachment. She docked there on 2 December with the rest of the force, and at 2:11 on 10 December Force Z was dispatched to investigate reports of Japanese landing forces at Kuantan. On arriving there they found the reports to be false. At 11:00 that morning Japanese bombers and torpedo aircraft began their assault on Force Z. In a second attack at 11:30 one torpedo struck ''Prince of Wales'' on the port side, wrecking the outer propeller shaft and causing the ship to take on a heavy list. A third torpedo attack developed against HMS ''Repulse'', a ''Renown''-class battlecruiser in Force Z, but she managed to avoid all torpedoes aimed at her. A fourth attack by torpedo-carrying Type 1 "Bettys" sank ''Repulse'' at 12:33. Six aircraft from this wave attacked ''Prince of Wales'', with three of their torpedoes hitting the ship on the starboard side, causing flooding. Finally a 500 kg bomb hit the catapult deck, penetrated through to the main deck and exploded, tearing a gash in the port side of the hull. At 13:15 the order was given to abandon ship and at 13:20 ''Prince of Wales'' sank; Vice-Admiral Tom Phillips and Captain John Leach were among the 327 fatalities. ''Prince of Wales'' and ''Repulse'' were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea (albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft), a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck lies upside down in of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea. == Construction == In the aftermath of the First World War, the Washington Naval Treaty was drawn up in 1922 in an effort to stop an arms race developing between Britain, Japan, France, Italy and the United States. This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35,000 tons.〔Raven and Roberts, p. 107〕 These restrictions were extended in 1930 through the Treaty of London, however, by the mid-1930s Japan and Italy had withdrawn from both of these treaties and the British became concerned about a lack of modern battleships within their navy. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the ''King George V'' class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the ''King George V''s were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the guns prescribed under these instruments. They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in 1937.〔Konstam, p. 20〕 ''Prince of Wales'' was originally named ''King Edward VIII'' but upon the abdication of Edward VIII the ship was renamed even before she had been laid down. This occurred at Cammell Laird's shipyard in Birkenhead on 1 January 1937, although it was not until 3 May 1939 that she was launched. She was still fitting out when war was declared in September, causing her construction schedule, and that of her sister, , to be accelerated. Nevertheless, the late delivery of gun mountings caused delays in her outfitting.〔Garzke p. 177〕 During early August 1940, while she was still being outfitted and was in a semi-complete state, ''Prince of Wales'' was attacked by German aircraft. One bomb fell between the ship and a wet basin wall, narrowly missing a 100-ton dockside crane, and exploded underwater below the bilge keel. The explosion took place about six feet from the ship's port side in the vicinity of the after group of 5.25-inch guns. Buckling of the shell plating took place over a distance of 20 to , rivets were sprung and considerable flooding took place in the port outboard compartments in the area of damage, causing a ten-degree port list. The flooding was severe, due to the fact that final compartment air tests had not yet been made and the ship did not have her pumping system in operation.〔 The water was pumped out through the joint efforts of a local fire company and the shipyard, and ''Prince of Wales'' was later dry docked for permanent repairs. This damage and the problem with the delivery of her main guns and turrets delayed her completion. As the war progressed there was an urgent need for capital ships, and so her completion was advanced by postponing compartment air tests, ventilation tests and a thorough testing of her bilge, ballast and fuel-oil systems.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「HMS Prince of Wales (53)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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