The Destruction of Force Z
-Jason
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The Japanese surprise attack on the American naval base of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 officially opened the Pacific War between the Allies and Imperial Japan. While news of the destruction of US Pacific Fleet was reported, another disaster was taking place on the opposite side of the of the Pacific: the destruction of the British Royal Navy’s Force Z.
Great Britain had an established an enormous overseas empire in Asia throughout the nineteenth century. British-ruled India, Malaysia, British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, and Singapore were direct colonies and Australia, and New Zealand were Commonwealth States that needed to be protected against hostile Japanese actions. However, the dire situation the British faced in Europe and North Africa forced these Pacific colonies to be undermanned and poorly equipped Even the fortifications that guarded the strategic port of Singapore could not effectively defend the overstretched British presence in Asia.
Through 1940 the British and American governments and militaries drew up plans for a combined war against Japan. The US Pacific Fleet was based in San Francisco, California (it would not shift to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii until late 1941) and had the responsibility to hold the Eastern Pacific and protect Australia and New Zealand. The British were required to have their own Pacific squadron guarding the Malay Barrier (the waterway between Singapore and Indonesia) and the Western Pacific. Neither Allied fleet was large enough to defeat the Japanese Combined Fleet, but they were ordered to slow Japanese advances and not engage in a decisive battle.
Great Britain and Japan had been allies in the First World War, but this relationship deteriorated during the period between the wars. Japan built an extensive military throughout the 1920s and 1930s for offensive operations to enable to capture of vital resources for the empire. New battleships, aircraft carriers, and cruisers had been built by the Japanese before 1941 and these gave them a massive superiority against Allied defensive forces.
Japan reinforced its existing garrisons as well as absorbing new territories, in particular French Indochina, as it prepared to expand its war. The acquisition of French Indochina, today’s Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam brought Japanese land-based aircraft within striking range of much of British-controlled Borneo, Malaysia, and Singapore. The British responded to this situation by implementing the creation of Force Z: a Royal Navy Squadron based in the Indian Ocean. While the ships that comprised Force Z were powerful in terms of surface warfare, they lacked a strong integrated air group to protect them from enemy aerial attack. The Royal Navy lacked additional aircraft carriers to provide this vital element: Force Z needed to rely on land-based aircraft for protection.
The ships that made up Force Z included the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, as well as smaller escorts. Prince of Wales had established a reputation for misfortune earlier in the war. She and the HMS Hood had made an unsuccessful sortie to stop the German battleship Bismarck from breaking out into the Atlantic Ocean in May 1941. The disastrous battle resulted in the destruction of the HMS Hood and the HMS Prince of Wales being heavily damaged. Despite its survival, many felt that the Prince of Wales was an unlucky ship. HMS Repulse was a World War I era battlecruiser that had been modernized with additional anti-aircraft weapons and new armor, however, even with these improvements she was not capable of surviving determined air attacks.
Force Z had only reached Singapore on 2 December 1941 and was still sorting out its support from local British Army officers. After the destruction of the United States Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the military situation swung heavily in Japanese favor. Various Japanese naval task forces had been sailing towards targets at the same time as the Pearl Harbor Strike Force. One major Imperial Navy task force was steaming towards Singapore and British Malaysia. Force Z was ordered to sail from Singapore and to disrupt any Japanese landing forces along the coast. Plans for British land-based fighters to fly aircover for Force Z were promised, but nothing materialized.
British Admiral Sir Tom Philips was overall commander of Force Z and it was his responsibility to sortie whether or not aircover was provided. Philips ordered his two capital ships and four destroyers to intercept the Japanese invasion force. The ships sailed out of Singapore on 10 December 1941 and headed northward, with no aircover. He was perturbed that no British fighters had been launched to cover him. Philips decided to maintain radio silence hoping to surprise any Japanese ships his task force encountered. The Japanese naval force was not found by Force Z and Philips ordered the ships to return to Singapore.
The destruction of Force Z did not come about by naval engagement, rather it was conducted by Japanese land-based aircraft operating out of Indochina. Japanese land-based Naval fighters and torpedo bombers had been launched to hunt down any British warships in the South China Sea. These aircraft were aided by the Japanese submarine I-58, which spotted Force Z on its return to base. A combination of 88 bombers and fighters launched concentrated air attacks against the British capital ships. The Japanese aircraft attacked in waves and scored multiple torpedo hits on the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse. Both capital ships were sunk with heavy losses of life among their crews. The horrific irony of this engagement was that British fighter aircraft arrived after the Japanese had withdrawn, just in time to witness the sinking of the Prince of Wales.
The losses suffered by the Royal Navy resulting from the destruction of Force Z were catastrophic: there were no major British warships in the Western Pacific. Japanese forces were able to conduct both amphibious and traditional land assaults against British forces in Malaysia and Singapore. The British Empire would organize another naval task force in early 1942, but this group was also destroyed. The losses suffered by the British, Dutch, Australians, New Zealanders, and Americans ensured that the Japanese were able to seize all the Allied colonies they had targeted by mid-1942.