HMS Repulse at Colombo (1941)

A watercolour study of HMS Repulse, done while the convoy was at Colombo in November 1941, just 1 month before she was sunk by the Japanese, read on for details of this ship.

December 10th 1941 –

Japanese troops sink Britain’s two main warships – the Prince of Wales and Repulse off the coast of Kuantan.

‘On the day that the prize British capital ships Prince of Wales & Repulse were sent to the bottom of the sea, Japanese forces marched into Malaya.’ (10th December 1941)

Source: World War 2 Handbook, Abbeydale Press

‘HMS Repulse was a Renown-class battlecruiser of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. The ship was delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Repulse, and her sister HMS Renown, were the world’s fastest capital ships upon completion.

Repulse participated in the Second Battle of Helgoland Blight in 1917; the only combat she saw during the First World War. She was reconstructed twice between the wars. The ship spent the first months of the Second World War hunting for German raiders and blockade runners. She participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940 and searched for the German battleship Bismarck in 1941.

Repulse escorted a troop convoy around the Cape of Good Hope from August to October 1941 and was transferred to East Indies Command. She was assigned in November to Force Z which was supposed to deter Japanese aggression against British possessions in the Far East. The Japanese were not deterred and sank Repulse and her consort HMS Prince of Wales  on 10th December 1941 when they attempted to intercept landings off Kuantan in British Malaya.’

Source: Wikipedia