HMS Prince of Wales (53)

3°33′36″N 104°28′42″E / 3.56000°N 104.47833°E / 3.56000; 104.47833

Prince of Wales arrives at Singapore, 4 December 1941
History
United Kingdom
Name	Prince of Wales
Namesake	The title of Prince of Wales
Ordered	29 July 1936
Builder	Cammell Laird, Birkenhead
Laid down	1 January 1937
Launched	3 May 1939
Completed	31 March 1941
Commissioned	19 January 1941
Identification	Pennant number: 53
Motto	"Ich Dien" – German: "I serve"
Nickname(s)	PoW
Fate	Sunk by Japanese air attack, 10 December 1941
General characteristics
Class and type	King George V-class battleship
Displacement	43,786 long tons (44,489 t) (deep)
Length	745 ft 1 in (227.1 m) (overall)
Beam	103 ft 2 in (31.4 m)
Draught	34 ft 4 in (10.5 m)
Installed power	8 Admiralty 3-drum boilers 110,000 shp (82,000 kW)
Propulsion	4 shafts; 4 sets geared turbines
Speed	28.3 knots (52.4 km/h; 32.6 mph)
Range	15,600 nmi (28,900 km; 18,000 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Complement	1,521 (1941)
Sensors and processing systems	Type 279 radar added Type 284 radar added Radars added in May 1941 4 × Type 282 and Type 285 radars added. Radar added between June–July 1941 Type 271 radar added
Armament	2 × quadruple, 1 × twin 14 in (356 mm) guns 8 × twin 5.25 in (133 mm) DP guns 4 × octuple 2 pdr (40 mm (1.6 in)) AA guns 3 × 20-barrel AA rockets (later replaced with 1 × octuple and 1 × quadruple 2 pdrs) 1 × 40 mm Bofors
Armour	Belt: 5.4–14.7 in (140–370 mm) Deck: 5–6 in (127–152 mm) Main gun turrets: 12.75 in (324 mm) Barbettes: 12.75 in (324 mm)
Aircraft carried	4 Supermarine Walrus seaplanes
Aviation facilities	1 × catapult

HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy that was built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead. Despite being sunk less than a year after she was commissioned, Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August 1940 while still being outfitted in her drydock when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May 1941 Battle of the Denmark Strait where she scored three hits on the German battleship Bismarck, forcing Bismarck to abandon her raiding mission and head to port for repairs. Prince of Wales later escorted one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, during which she was attacked by Italian aircraft. In her final action, she attempted to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya as part of Force Z when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941, two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

She was sunk alongside her consort, the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, in an attack by 85 Mitsubishi G3M and G4M bombers of the Japanese navy air service. Prince of Wales and Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare. The wreck of Prince of Wales lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea.

In the 21st century, her wreck was illegally salvaged by scrap metal dealers.^[1]