WI: Prince of wale and Repulse reach Singapore

Let's said that they are sent 1 month earlier and safely reach Singapore before the start of the war, what are they going to do? Even if PoW is a very modern ship, without any additional ships it would be suicidal to try to contest the sea domination to the Japanese. Would they be able to act as naval artillery and for instance decisively help the defender to beat Yamashita's first wave and hence hold for a few more weaks/month?
 
I’m fairly sure that Prince of Wales and Repulse were in Singapore harbour when the war began.

They sortied out of the harbour to attack reported invasion convoys .
 
StevoJH, correct. Force Z had called into Singapore, then sailed some days later to investigate and disrupt suspected Japanese landings further up the coast. They were sunk whilst returning to Singapore, having failed to make contact with IJN units. The lack of air cover or suitable escorts doomed them once they were spotted by the Japanese.
Assuming they had returned safely, they may have provided NGS support for the defences, if the Admiralty had been willing to lose them. Late in the war British X-boats tried to sink a Japanese heavy cruiser in the port, but it just settled in the shallows and remained upright (having offloaded much ammunition whilst in port prevented it actually blowing up), so there is scope to see them purposely flooded to use as a gun battery. It's hard to see them being sacrificed in this way though, as they were it for RN capital ships in the region; better to be withdrawn and kept as a stalking tiger to restrict Japanese freedom to move further west. Stuck in Singapore there would have been little hope of getting more ammunition through to them once the Japanese had started down both sides of the peninsular and they would have been subjected to daily, almost hourly bombing. Ultimately they would still have been lost as Singapore would just have fallen a bit later.
 
The lack of air cover or suitable escorts doomed them once they were spotted by the Japanese.

My paternal grandfather was on the Prince of Wales (he survived), and he always blamed the lack of air cover for the disaster. For which he personally blamed Churchill (whom he hated).
 
Top