NEW FACTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 January 1943, Page 4

NEW FACTS

ABOUT LOSS OF BRITISH CAPITAL SHIPS IN MALAYAN CAMPAIGN. QUESTION OF AIR PROTECTION. The truth about lack of fighter escort for the battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse, sunk in the South China Sea, can now be told, writes an Air Correspondent in the “Manchester Guardian.” Extracts from an article in an American magazine by Admiral Hart, formerly of the United States Navy, in which he said that R.A.F. fighters were within half an hour of the ships when they were sunk, have been cabled back to Britain. They are (says the correspondent) resented by people who read into them an implication that the R.A.F. failed in its duty to the Kavy. This is the sequence of events related by an Air Ministry spokesman: When Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, who was in charge of the ships, set out, the R.A.F. told him that they were doubtful whether they could give him fighter protection in the area where he intended to go. This was because it was not known at that moment whether Kota Baru aerodrome. (Malaya) could be used. We told him we would confirm whether or not fighter protection could be given. Two hours after he had sailed we said we could not give him the support. He decided he would go forward without it. He was found by a Japanese reconnaissance aircraft that evening. The clouds cleared away and he decided to alter his plan. He turned back to another area, to which it would have been possible for us to have sent three or four fighters. At that time he had maintained wireless silence. When a call came for fighter aircraft. giving his position the attack was in progress. Aircraft left Singapore within seven minutes of the call being received. He was then 150 miles away. By the time the aircraft got there it was all over. Destroyers were picking up survivors. It was all over in twenty minutes. Citing the battle in support of his argument against a separate United States Air Force, Admiral Hart wrote: “It is distasteful to point out mistakes of an Ally, but the subject is most vital.” He says that the R.A.F. had a considerable force in Malaya “within easy flying range,” but that “the battleships received no aid from them against Japanese attack. We have never heard why R.A.F. fighters gave no help.” He adds that the Japanese air force, which was not a separate entity, proved itself highly able. Admiral Hart, who was Commander-in-Chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet at the time the Prince of Wales and the Repulse were sunk, has defended the late Sir Tom Phillips's action in taking the battleships to sea as “the only thing which could have saved Singapore.”