Main Fleet to Singapore by Russell Grenfell

Author:Russell Grenfell [Grenfell, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Press
Published: 2016-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Inquest on the Disaster

The immediate cause of the loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse was a lack of air cover over the ships off Kuantan, this in turn being basically due to the extreme shortage of fighters in the British Air Force in Malaya. Had there been enough of them to meet the foreseeable requirements of Malayan defence and had they been of the high quality which was possible, the story of the first few days of the Japanese invasion would assuredly have been a different one. With sufficient fighters to look after Singapore Island and the outlying airfields as well, the Japanese would not have had the walk-over they did in the north, the Malayan airfields near the frontier ought to have remained in British operation much longer, Kuantan airfield would hardly have been evacuated at the first attack as actually happened, and Admiral Phillips would not have had to be given the chilling message that he could expect no air protection. What the effect of that message was on his mind is mainly conjectural. It seems, however, a reasonable assumption that had the Admiral been assured that fighters would be on call at Kota Bharu and Kuantan whenever he should want them, he would not have hesitated to signal for their assistance as needed. As it was, he had pressed for air cover in the north before leaving harbour, but had been twice told that he could not have it; and the subsequent message that fighters were being concentrated for the defence of Singapore island made it possible for him to conclude that air cover would not be forthcoming at all.

For that or some other reason, the Admiral did not again ask for cover on the morning of December 10th when air attack was a likelihood — was indeed developing. The first warning of hostile bombers being in the vicinity came from the Tenedos at 10 a.m. Had the Admiral taken this initial danger signal as the moment for communicating with air headquarters ashore, fighters could just have been on the spot before the first torpedo air attack began. It is conceivable, however, that as the Tenedos was a good many miles from the heavy ships, Admiral Phillips hoped that her discovery by the enemy would not necessarily lead to his own and was therefore reluctant to break wireless silence lest his flagship’s position should thereby be given away. He is known to have been from the start extremely sensitive to this danger in the use of wireless. It was one that had for some time been something of a fetish in the British Navy.

What is difficult to understand is why the Admiral never made an attack report at all, neither when an enemy reconnaissance plane appeared over the main portion of the fleet at 10.20 a.m. nor when the attacks began just after 11 a.m. No convincing reason is known for this omission. There is just a chance that any signal ordered at this time might have been lost in transmission through a special mishap.

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