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The sinking of ''Prince of Wales'' and ''Repulse'' was a Second World War naval engagement that took place north of Singapore, off the east coast of Malaya, near Kuantan, Pahang, where the British Royal Navy battleship and battlecruiser were sunk by land-based bombers and torpedo bombers of the Imperial Japanese Navy on 10 December 1941. In Japanese, the engagement was referred to as the . The objective of Force Z, which consisted of one battleship, one battlecruiser and four destroyers, was to intercept the Japanese invasion fleet north of Malaya. However, the task force sailed without any air support, which had been declined by Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, the commander of Force Z, in favour of maintaining radio silence.〔 Although the British had a close encounter with Japanese heavy surface units, the force failed to find and destroy the main convoy. On their return to Singapore they were attacked in open waters and sunk by long-range medium bombers. Along with the attack on Pearl Harbor only a few days earlier, the Malaya engagement illustrated the effectiveness of aerial attacks against even the heaviest of naval assets if they were not protected by air cover, and led the Allies to place importance on their aircraft carriers over battleships. The sinking of the two ships severely weakened the Eastern Fleet in Singapore, and the Japanese invasion fleet was only engaged by submarines until the Battle off Endau on 27 January 1942. ==Background== In December 1941, as a deterrent to Japanese territorial expansion which was recently demonstrated by the invasion of French Indochina, it was proposed that a force of Royal Navy warships be dispatched to the Far East with a view to providing reinforcement for Britain's possessions there, most notably Singapore. First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound represented that Singapore could only be adequately defended if the Royal Navy sent the majority of its capital ships there, to achieve parity with an estimated force of nine Japanese battleships. However, dispatching such a large British force was impractical as the British were at war with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Nevertheless, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeared optimistic about the improving situation in the North Atlantic and Mediterranean; he advocated sending two capital ships along with an aircraft carrier to defend Malaya, Borneo and the Straits Settlements. Churchill has been criticised for showing "considerable ignorance" and holding an "exaggerated belief in the power of the battleship," along with "a tendency to interfere in naval matters."〔Stephen, p. 102.〕 This may have led him to propose a squadron of three modern ships: one battleship, one battlecruiser, and one carrier.〔Stephen, p. 104.〕 His view was that these would form a "fleet in being" to deter Japanese action, as the German battleship ''Tirpitz'', sister to the lost ''Bismarck'', was in the North Sea.〔 However, there was no firm plan for such a task.〔(Alan Matthews, "The Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse", Force 'Z' Survivors Website. )〕 The original British proposal allocated the new ''King George V''-class battleship , the veteran , and the for air cover, though the plan had to be revised when ''Indomitable'' ran aground in the Caribbean Sea.〔Stephen, p. 107.〕 The dispatch of capital ships to Singapore had been part of the Admiralty's strategic planning since the naval base had been expanded and fortified beginning in the early 1920s. The scale of this planned deployment had been reduced during the 1930s, since Germany and Italy presented new threats to British interests in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Nevertheless, it was still assumed that a significant force of capital ships would deter Japanese expansion. Churchill's plan presumed〔Willmott, H. P. ''Barrier and the Javelin'' (Annapolis: U.S. Naval Institute Press, 1983).〕 that the United States would agree to send its Pacific Fleet, including eight battleships, to Singapore in the event of hostilities with Japan, or that the British force would add to the deterrent value of the US fleet, should it stay at Pearl Harbor.〔(Alan Matthews, 2006, "The sinking of HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse" (Force Z Survivors Association) ). Access date: 13 October 2007.〕 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「Sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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