Cause of Death: |
Imperial Japanese Navy land based bombers found the battleship HMS Prince of Wales (35,000 tons) and battle-cruiser HMS Repulse (26,500 tons) in the South China Sea. The British capitol ships are sunk, by 88 Japanese aircraft in less than two hours; 840 men die, 2,800 are rescued by escorting destroyers. This leaves the Allies with no active battleships in the Pacific. |