What If: Force Z(ombie - but not literally)

This isn't quite ASB, because there have been insanely lucky people, ships, and so forth in history, and British intelligence did some fairly odd things in WWII - and because no actual zombies are involved.

Let say that, rather than being badly defeated as in OTL, Force Z takes mostly cosmetic damage, that looks rather worse than it is. In fact, they look like they should be sinking, yet they keep on fighting. This happens again and again, in later battles, and a rumour starts among the IJN that Force Z consists of ghost ships, and thus, they cannot be killed. Sheer luck assists skill in making all ships of Force Z survive the war, though they mostly don't look pretty, and if they do, not for long.

British intelligence learns of this, and decides to play it up (golden opportunity for psychological warfare, you see).

So, what effect does this have on Japanese morale, British morale, and the war in general?
 
Prince of Wales and Repulse would probably spend much of the war after the loss of Singapore going to Australia, before joining up with the RAN and USN as the war really gets going in the Pacific. Repulse would have her AA armament seriously beefed up, and probably fights the war with the Americans and Australians. Prince of Wales probably gets sent to Guadalcanal to assist the Americans, perhaps assisting Washington and South Dakota in taking down Kirishima. Having survived the bombing runs and Guadalcanal, the Allies by now know that Repulse and Prince of Wales have quite a repute, and the two of them are busy through the war.

Repulse has her finest hour at Leyte Gulf. Assigned as the sole heavyweight escort ship for Taffy 3 at the Battle off Samar, she battles just as hard as any American destroyer and even when faced with mind-numbing odds, helps the American succeed in driving off Kurita's Center Force. When the Japanese realize that one of the now-legendary British "Ghost Ships" is the flagship of the fleet they are facing, Kurita is convinced that he has had his bluff called by Halsey and he retreats. Repulse in the battle lands shots on Yamato, not enough to sink it, but it does rattle the Japanese.

The last few months of the war see the now-legendary ships joining USN units and new RN arrivals in shelling the hell out of Japanese coastal areas. Both ships are present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945.
 
Prince of Wales and Repulse would probably spend much of the war after the loss of Singapore going to Australia, before joining up with the RAN and USN as the war really gets going in the Pacific. Repulse would have her AA armament seriously beefed up, and probably fights the war with the Americans and Australians. Prince of Wales probably gets sent to Guadalcanal to assist the Americans, perhaps assisting Washington and South Dakota in taking down Kirishima. Having survived the bombing runs and Guadalcanal, the Allies by now know that Repulse and Prince of Wales have quite a repute, and the two of them are busy through the war.

Repulse has her finest hour at Leyte Gulf. Assigned as the sole heavyweight escort ship for Taffy 3 at the Battle off Samar, she battles just as hard as any American destroyer and even when faced with mind-numbing odds, helps the American succeed in driving off Kurita's Center Force. When the Japanese realize that one of the now-legendary British "Ghost Ships" is the flagship of the fleet they are facing, Kurita is convinced that he has had his bluff called by Halsey and he retreats. Repulse in the battle lands shots on Yamato, not enough to sink it, but it does rattle the Japanese.

The last few months of the war see the now-legendary ships joining USN units and new RN arrivals in shelling the hell out of Japanese coastal areas. Both ships are present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945.

If Force Z survives, Singapore might not be lost. If the two ships can get a shot at the invasion beaches, with some halfway decent air cover, or at night, early enough in the campaign, then it's game over in Malaya. If the Japanese lose their transports, then they will have a lot of difficulty reinforcing their army there.

If the British hold Singapore and Sumatra, then it changes the dynamic of the war in the Pacific. It becomes a two front war with the Americans in the East attacking through the central Pacific and the British and Commonwealth forces in the West fighting in the Dutch East Indies.
 
If Force Z survives, Singapore might not be lost. If the two ships can get a shot at the invasion beaches, with some halfway decent air cover, or at night, early enough in the campaign, then it's game over in Malaya. If the Japanese lose their transports, then they will have a lot of difficulty reinforcing their army there.

If the British hold Singapore and Sumatra, then it changes the dynamic of the war in the Pacific. It becomes a two front war with the Americans in the East attacking through the central Pacific and the British and Commonwealth forces in the West fighting in the Dutch East Indies.


That seems quite unlikely, since the British capital ships needed space to oeprate in and were not to be used as coastal artillery platforms, already available in Singapore. The Japanese would still go on to capture Singapore and land more or less unopposed on teh Malayan Pininsula and later on at Singapore's Northern shores, where they would have no opposition of the British Navay, as this was already withdrawn to a saver place on orders out of London. (The UK could not affort to loose too many large ships, given its short supply of these and the fact that already six were gone before december 10th 1941. (Three aircraft carriers and three battleships)

HMS Prince of Wales was too valuable to loose (or even have her damaged). HMS Repulse was a fine and experienced ship, but too old to be of much value. Had Force-Z survived the Malayan Campaign, HMS Prince of Wales would certainly have been called back to the UK for service there, as she already had proved to be totally unable to operate in tropical conditions, due to her poor ventilation systems. HMS Repulse may have been left in the East Asian theater, as she could be missed in Europe adn she was better suited for service in the tropics. As a "showing the flag" ship for political purposes, she might have had a nice carreer in relative savety of South Astralia and the Indian Ocean, as she would not be risked in battle against heavy odds. Sooner or later, she would be refitted to some extend and become part of the makeshift Eastern Fleet, making hit and run attacks on Japanese outposts, supporting carriers, when these finaly became available.
 
That seems quite unlikely, since the British capital ships needed space to oeprate in and were not to be used as coastal artillery platforms, already available in Singapore. The Japanese would still go on to capture Singapore and land more or less unopposed on teh Malayan Pininsula and later on at Singapore's Northern shores, where they would have no opposition of the British Navay, as this was already withdrawn to a saver place on orders out of London. (The UK could not affort to loose too many large ships, given its short supply of these and the fact that already six were gone before december 10th 1941. (Three aircraft carriers and three battleships)

HMS Prince of Wales was too valuable to loose (or even have her damaged). HMS Repulse was a fine and experienced ship, but too old to be of much value. Had Force-Z survived the Malayan Campaign, HMS Prince of Wales would certainly have been called back to the UK for service there, as she already had proved to be totally unable to operate in tropical conditions, due to her poor ventilation systems. HMS Repulse may have been left in the East Asian theater, as she could be missed in Europe adn she was better suited for service in the tropics. As a "showing the flag" ship for political purposes, she might have had a nice carreer in relative savety of South Astralia and the Indian Ocean, as she would not be risked in battle against heavy odds. Sooner or later, she would be refitted to some extend and become part of the makeshift Eastern Fleet, making hit and run attacks on Japanese outposts, supporting carriers, when these finaly became available.

Guys

The big problem for Malaya is that the initial landings at Kota Bhura and in Siam have already occurred. Force Z was steaming back south after a probe north which was called off when it was realised that the Japanese had already landed. Hence they would need to intercept the Japanese invasion earlier to have any significant chance of stopping the invasion, or winning enough time for necessary reinforcements to arrive.

If they had survived the attack on the 10th [I think it was] they would probably have been withdrawn from Singapore as it would be too vulnerable. Suspect they might have been lost fighting for Java as it would have been politically impossible not to do something to try and stem the Japanese tide. Could have caused some nasty problems for the IJN but would have been too vulnerable to air power.

Repulse was actually already an extensively rebuilt ship and very effective, although somewhat thinly armoured. Other than possibly improved radar and definitely steadily improved AA I doubt that major changes would have occurred to it during the war unless it was damaged enough to need repair in which case something else might have been done.

Steve
 
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