HMS Prince of Wales
1939 King George V-class battleship



Vessel Wikidata
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HMS Prince of Wales (53) was the second of the King George V-class battleships built for the Royal Navy in the 1930s. Commissioned in 1941, the ship saw action during World War II, including the hunt for the German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. The Prince of Wales also participated in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst in December 1943. The ship was heavily damaged by Japanese air attacks in the South China Sea in December 1941, leading to its sinking along with HMS Repulse. The loss of the Prince of Wales and Repulse highlighted the vulnerability of capital ships to air attacks without adequate air cover. The wreck of the Prince of Wales was discovered in 2007 off the coast of Malaysia. The ship remains a significant piece of naval history, symbolizing the changing nature of naval warfare during World War II and the strategic challenges faced by the Royal Navy during the conflict.
This description has been generated using GPT-3.5-TURBO based on the Vessel's wikidata information and then modified by ShipIndex.org staff.