HMS Repulse

Brit csatacirkáló

May 27, 1940. British Movietone News. HMS Repulse was a Renown-class battlecruiser, the second to last battlecruiser built by John Brown and Company, Clydebank, Scotland, for the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1916, too late to take part in the Battle of Jutland, but also too early to incorporate the lessons of that battle. Still in time to take part in World War I, in September 1916, she joined the Grand Fleet as flagship of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron.Repulse first saw action on 17 November 1917 at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. Commanded by Captain William "Ginger" Boyle she briefly engaged two German battleships, SMS Kaiser and SMS Kaiserin, before they retired. The next month, Repulse was damaged in collision with the battlecruiser HMAS Australia.After the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Repulse operated in various hunting groups that were formed to hunt down German commerce raiders. However, she did not engage any. In December, she performed escort duty for troop carriers between Canada and Britain. In July, 1940, when Glowworm was lost attacking the Admiral Hipper, Repulse took part in the search, but failed to make contact. Towards the end of the campaign, during the evacuation of British troops, due to concern that an invasion of Iceland was in process, Repulse was detached from protecting Norway convoys to search for the invasion force. In fact, no invasion was under way. Subsequently Repulse returned to convoy protection through early 1941.In January 1941, Repulse participated in the hunt for the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. In May, she took part in the chase of the Bismarck. In August, she was transferred to Cape Town, South Africa, and in October, she was transferred to India, arriving on 28 October.At the end of 1941, as the threat of war with Japan loomed ever larger, Repulse was detached to the Far East as a deterrent to Japanese aggression. This force, long envisioned in Admiralty strategic planning as a large battle fleet designed to act as a Fleet-in-being and as a counter to Japanese intentions, eventually was despatched to Singapore as an under-strength squadron. Its inability to act as a deterrent would soon be exposed.Initially designated as Force G, this squadron was sent without the planned for aircraft carrier to Singapore. Shortly after the outbreak of war in the Pacific on 8 December 1941, Repulse left Singapore in company with the other major element of the Eastern Fleet, the fast battleship HMS Prince of Wales, and 4 destroyers, to try and intercept Japanese invasion convoys heading towards Malaya. Both the HMS Repulse and the HMS Prince of Wales were subsequently sunk by Japanese aircraft on December 10, 1941.