Confronting Japan: Repulse, Prince of Wales, Java Sea & Ceylon 1941-1942

428 pages

Capt Jeremy Stocker RNR

This volume is the latest in the Britannia Naval Histories of World War II series published by the College itself and available via Amazon. These books reproduce official documents held in BRNC’s archive plus an extensive collection of contemporary photographs of the ships and aircraft involved in the various actions. As such, they provide invaluable and accessible primary sources for researchers, as well as being readable works in their own right.

Confronting Japan deals with three separate engagements in the early months of the war in the Far East, in each case based on the official (and originally classified) Battle Summary. The Summaries for the Java Sea and Ceylon were produced during the War. The one for the loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse was not finalised until 1955, earlier editions being revised in light of Japanese accounts of the action.

The symbolic loss of these two capital ships is a story that will be well known to NR members. Adam Swann’s Introduction observes that “…the official history…reinforced the lessons of Norway…that fleets cannot operate without organic naval controlled air-cover.” The deployment of Prince of Wales and Repulse to Singapore was all that could be mustered to fulfil prewar plans for (to use the title of an earlier work) ‘Main Fleet to Singapore’. In August 1941, with war waging in Europe and the Atlantic but before the Japanese attacks took place, it was hoped to send seven capital ships plus a carrier and escorts. But at the end of 1941 just two capital ships could be made available. Whether a carrier would have prevented the losses or simply have added another we can never know.

Less than three months later a combined Australian, British, Dutch and American (‘ABDA’) force of cruisers and destroyers met another defeat at the hands of a similarly sized Japanese force at the battle of the Java Sea. The official history provides a clinical but fascinating account of this engagement, complete with maps. It concludes that the improvised Allied force suffered too many disadvantages to avert defeat at the hands of a well-prepared and unified Japanese squadron. Its defeat sealed the fate of the Dutch East Indies. The heavy cruiser Exeter, which had fought the famous action off the River Plate in December 1939, was the principal RN casualty.

Following defeat in the Java Sea, by late March 1942 surviving RN units had been withdrawn either to Australia or to Ceylon. The Eastern Fleet, now being reconstituted at the latter under Admiral Sir James Somerville, comprised five battleships, three carriers and numerous cruisers and destroyers. This was too late to save Singapore which had fallen in February but enough to contest Japanese incursions further west into the Indian Ocean. Air attacks on Colombo plus reports of approaching Japanese warships meant RN units were ordered to sea. In the absence of adequate air cover, Hermes, Cornwall and Dorsetshire were all lost off Ceylon to carrier-launched air attack. RN units subsequently withdrew temporarily to East Africa and Japanese to the Pacific where they were needed for operations against the Americans. The engagement off Ceylon proved to be an isolated raid rather than the start of persistent Japanese operations in the area.

The Battle Summary for this brief campaign is notable for a lengthy analysis of damage control issues, especially in relation to the loss of the two heavy cruisers. Today’s officers will recognise many of the problems and remedies identified.

This work is a valuable addition to the literature on RN actions in the Far East in 1941-2. Recommended.