Wales, Repulse: A Lesson

OUTTOWNING FOUR DAYS SWELL STORY

When CBS's Far Eastern Correspondent Cecil Brown cabled these words to his home office from Singapore last week, he had no idea what an overwhelming story he was going out of town to report. He had no way of guessing that he would see a clash which almost certainly would radically change the British understanding of warfare at sea. The story:

As Admiral Sir Tom Phillips put to sea with his Fleet (which had only been his Fleet for ten days, since his arrival at Singapore to meet his flagship, the new 35,000-ton Prince of Wales), he had fixed in his mind the opposition he would meet. "We are out looking for trouble," he signaled, "and no doubt we shall find it. We hope to surprise the enemy transports tomorrow and we expect to meet the Japanese battleship Kongo." Admiral Phillips said not a word about Japanese airplanes. He went to sea without air protection.

At 5:20 the next morning the Fleet spotted a Japanese reconnaissance plane, which had unquestionably spotted the Fleet. Admiral Phillips paid his respect to this fact by altering his course. But he decided not to ask the R.A.F. for an air screen because he considered it more important to keep wireless silence.

At 11, by which time the sea was brilliantly sunlit, nine Japanese planes were sighted at 10,000 feet. They flew in single file along the length of the 32,000-ton battle cruiser Repulse. A bomb hit the catapult deck and exploded in the hangar, setting a fire below decks. The Repulse's planes, instead of being out on reconnaissance, were in hangar.

At 11:15 Admiral Phillips wirelessed the R.A.F. for help.

At 11:40 the Prince of Wales was attacked by a swarm of torpedo bombers. She was hit astern, her propellers and steering gear knocked out. This was exactly the kind of blow by which the British themselves had crippled the Bismarck.

Wave after wave of torpedo bombers swooped in on the Repulse. The Wales signaled, asking whether she had been hit. Replied the Repulse: "We have avoided 19 torpedoes till now, thanks to Providence."

Hit. But neither Providence nor British air protection was on hand at 12:20 p.m. Broadcast Cecil Brown:

" 'Stand by for barrage,' comes over the ship's communication system. One plane is circling around. It's now at 300 or 400 yards, approaching us from the port side. It's coming closer headon, and I see a torpedo drop. A watcher shouts, 'Stand by for torpedo,' and the tin fish is streaking directly for us.

"Some one says: 'This one's got us.'

"The torpedo struck the side on which I was standing, about twenty yards astern of my position. It felt like the ship had crashed into a well-rooted dock. It threw me four feet across the deck, but I did not fall, and I did not feel any explosion--just this very great jar.

"Almost immediately, it seemed, we began to list, and less than a minute later there was another jar of the same kind and same force, except that it was almost precisely the same spot on the starboard.

"After the first torpedo, the communications system coolly announced: 'Blow up your lifebelts.' I was in this process when the second torpedo struck, and the settling ship and crazy angle were so apparent that I didn't continue blowing the belt.

"The communications system announced: 'Prepare to abandon ship. May God be with you.' "

Cecil Brown parted reluctantly from a brand-new pair of shoes, jumped into the oily water and swam hard to avoid the down-draught of the huge vessel as she turned on her beam ends, lifted her ugly stern underparts, and sank. From the water he saw the Wales, torpedoed and afire, slowly go down.

At this point British planes appeared.

Losses. Cecil Brown and 2,300 others out of the two battleships' complement of 2,925 were rescued by destroyers. Admiral Phillips and Captain John Catterall Leach of the Wales were drowned.

Tom Thumb Phillips ("all brains and no body") was 64 inches short--smaller even than the mighty little Nelson. At 53 he was one of the youngest Admirals in the British Navy, one of the youngest commanders in chief. The way he died proved he had Lord Nelson's eagerness for action, without Nelson's mysterious acuteness as to what enemy forces he might encounter.

John Catterall Leach, tall, fair and skinny, was 47 years old, had won the D.S.O. for his part in the Bismarck affair. He gave a continuous running commentary of the action against the Bismarck over the public-address system for the benefit of the crew buried below. When a shell hit the compass platform beside him, killing or wounding nearly everyone. Captain Leach, though badly ruptured by the blast, continued his account until the Bismarck sank. He was hospitalized for some time, returned to the Prince of Wales in time for the Roosevelt-Churchill meeting at sea.

Lesson. The British who survived the battle were not only exhausted; they were wiser men. They had seen 36 Japanese high-level bombers and 50 Japanese torpedo-bombers accomplish in a matter of minutes as much as Adolf Hitler's submarines and Stukas had been able to accomplish in two years of war--i.e., sink two capital ships.

The battle's great lesson besides Japanese skill and guts, was the importance of the aerial torpedo in fleet actions. Cecil Brown broadcast: "It's apparent that the best guns and crews would be unable to stem a torpedo-bombing attack if the attackers are sufficiently determined"--and insufficiently opposed by defending aircraft. After this battle, a capital ship without air screen must be reckoned nearly as vulnerable as one without armor. But a capital ship with an air screen is, as far as experience shows, still better than any other kind of ship afloat.

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