Скачать или смотреть How Japan Coordinated The Perfect Torpedo Attack Against Britain’s Pacific Fleet

December 10, 1941 — just days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Royal Navy’s Force Z sailed from Singapore to intercept Japanese landings in Malaya. Led by the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse, the task force expected surface combat — not an aerial onslaught.

But off the coast near Kuantan, Japanese reconnaissance aircraft spotted them. Within hours, waves of skilled torpedo and high-level bombers descended from the sky. With no fighter cover and no effective radar warning, Force Z faced the full might of Japanese naval aviation alone.

Torpedoes ripped into Prince of Wales, crippling her steering and flooding her machinery spaces. Repulse dodged torpedoes with skill — until a final coordinated salvo overwhelmed her. By early afternoon, both capital ships had sunk, taking more than 800 sailors with them.

The battle marked a turning point in naval history. For the first time, aircraft had sunk modern capital ships at sea, proving that the age of the battleship was over — and the age of air power had arrived.

This is the story of the Battle off Kuantan — the last stand of Force Z and the moment naval warfare changed forever.