HMS Battle-Cruiser Repulse

HMS Repulse and her sister Renown were laid down under the 1914-15 Naval Estimates as battleships of the Royal Sovereign class, similar to the Royal Oak (q.v.) However, construction was halted shortly after the outbreak of war in August 1914 to allow completion to a new design.

At the insistence of Lord Fisher the two ships were completely altered to a battle-cruiser design of greater speed but much lighter protection. As only six 15-inch turrets were available Fisher was forced to allow them to have only six guns each, and they were given maximum speed, minimum draught and only the lightest armour. The purpose of the shallow draught was to allow them to serve in the Baltic in support of Fisher's great dream, a British landing on the German coast.

By the time these enormous but relatively weak ships appeared their raison d'etre had vanished. Fisher had resigned from the office of First Sea Lord in a moment of pique in 1915, and his Baltic project had been shelved. Furthermore the Battle of Jutland, fought only four months before Repulse and Renown joined the Grand Fleet, showed what happened to battle-cruisers protected by nothing more than six inches of armour. Jellicoe, the Commander-in-Chief of the Grand Fleet, recorded his horror at seeing the two white elephants for the first time, and promptly sent them back into dockyard hands for additional magazine and turret protection. Indeed, the two spent so much time in and out of dockyards that they became known as Refit and Repair to the sailors.

Repulse and her sister spent the remainder of the War with the 1st Battle-Cruiser Squadron, and fought in a brief skirmish with German light cruisers off Heligoland in November 1917. In that year Repulse made history as the first capital ship to launch aircraft from platforms on her turrets. Following tests she was fitted with extending platforms for wheeled fighter aircraft on 'B' and 'X' turrets. After the Armistice she was taken in hand for re-armouring, the only time this has been done in this way. It was known that her 6-inch belt was virtually useless, and so she was given a deeper 9-inch armour belt reaching to the upper deck. When she emerged in 1922 she was still a lightly armoured ship, but she now had a reasonable chance of survival in battle.

After ten years with the Atlantic and Home Fleets she was taken in hand at Portsmouth for partial modemisation. The work involved provision of an aircraft hangar, anew type of athwartships catapult, additional anti-aircraft guns and some remodelling of the superstructure. However the basic layout remained unchanged, and she looked much as she had since the end of World War I.

Repulse commissioned in 1936 for the Mediterranean Fleet, but returned to Home waters in August 1938. She was taken in hand for a refit to equip her for the proposed Royal Tour in 1939, but when this was cancelled owing to the gloomy international situation she rejoined the Home Fleet in time for the outbreak of war. With the Hood she formed the Battle-cruiser Squadron of the Home Fleet, and spent the greater part of her time at sea covering convoys or taking part in Home Fleet operations.

Although earmarked for an extensive refit in an American dockyard in September 1941, the situation in the Far East made this impossible, and after the briefest of refits she sailed for Colombo via the Cape of Good Hope, to meet the Prince of Wales. The two capital ships formed Force 'Z', the nucleus of a Far Eastern Fleet, but on 8 December 1941 both ships were sunk by a highly skilled Japanese air attack. Repulse , after dodging a number of torpedoes, succumbed to  four, and sank with the Ioss of some 200 lives.

The drawing shows Repulse as she probably appeared at the time of her loss, although this can only be an approximation based on the meagre number of photographs which have survived. The main features of her appearance are not in doubt, as photographs confirm that she had a Type 284 radar aerial on her main gunnery director, and also the existence of single 20-mm Oerlikon antiaircraft guns on 'X' turret.

The haste of her last refit is demonstrated by the fact that some of the 20-mm Oerlikon guns have only the most rudimentary platforms and lack limit-rails- It is believed that she mounted a further eleven Oerlikons, but in the absence of clear proof we can only place them approximately. One seems to have been sited on either side at the break of the forecastle deck, and the others around the superstructure and on the quarterdeck. A further pair of quadruple machineguns were sited on platforms on the after tripod. Although expert advice has been sought on these points the exact nature of the final modifications to the Repulse remain unknown for the time being.

Repulse appeared in 1936 with a pair of experimental twin 4-inch "between deck" anti-aircraft guns on the after shelter deck. These were prototypes for the similar 4.5-inch dual-purpose mounting installed in the Renown, Queen Elizabeth and Valiant, and the Illustrious class. During the 1938-39 refit for the projected Royal Tour these guns were removed, but when the tour was cancelled they were not put back; instead she was given single 4-inch guns similar to those mounted on the forecastle abreast of the forefunnel.

Many of the original triple 4-inch guns are still carried, despite the universally poor opinion of them. In 1939 it was proposed to replace both after triple 4-inch mountings by 8-barrelled pom-poms, but only one materialised. The openings at the break of the forecastle and level with the hangar are the doors for fixed broadside 18-inch torpedo-tubes, which were fitted during the 1932-36 refit. The saluting guns may have been removed by 1941, but this is again impossible to verify .

The most noticeable point about the Repulse is her poor layout.. The superstructure amidships is very complicated, and offers very bad sky-arcs for the 4-inch. In addition the solitary radar set, only controlling the 15-inch guns, has a large blind arc. The September 1941 refit in the U.S.A. would apparently have resulted in an armament of ten 4-inch (twin) , but it is difficult to see any better way in which they would have been mounted. The American refit would have given Repulse Types 282 and 285 radar sets to control the 4-inch and pom-poms, which would have given her a fighting chance in December 1941. Without even rudimentary anti-aircraft fire-control no capital ship could hope to survive for very long against a skilful enemy.

The boats include three 45-foot laJnches, a 35-foot motor boat, three 32-foot cutters, two 30-foot gigs, four 27-foot whalers and a pair of 16-foot dingh!es.
The principal structural alteration effected in 1932-36, the big aircraft hangar is clearly visible, with two heavy cranes and boat stowage on the roof .

When compared with her one-time sister Renown. Repulse looks a handsome but sadly old-fashioned capital ship. The big flat-sided funnels, the long sweep of the forecastle deck and the reverse sheet of the quarter deck all betray her link with Fisher's battle-cruisers. Speed and grace were built into her, but to the end of her days she was something of a liability, and it is hard to think of a less suitable ship to send against the Japanese air force in 1941.