In December 1941, the Axis across Asia and Europe had been formed, and the clouds of war hung over the earth. Britain and Japan, which had maintained an alliance, had turned against each other at this time, and Japan was intensively planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, and the smell of gunpowder had already appeared in the vast Pacific Ocean.
In order to maintain the interests and security of Malaya, Kalimantan and the Straits Settlements in the Far East, the British government and the Royal Navy negotiated with the United States, and after the outbreak of war, eight battleships of the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy sailed to Singapore to provide support. The British could only rely on themselves this time, and there was also a Druid-class cruiser of the Royal Dutch Navy in the Dutch East Indies, as well as two warships in Java and Tromp, which were actually built according to the standard of light cruisers, but because of the insufficient defense budget of the Netherlands, which led to the "reduction" of armor, they could support the Far East Fleet in a war.
With the rapid deterioration of the situation in the Pacific, the United States, Britain, the Netherlands, and Australia quickly organized a loose joint fleet command (ABDACOM), and although the ABDA fleet at this time was "outnumbered", whether it was Exeter of the Royal Navy, Marblehead of the United States, or Java of the Netherlands, they were all in a state of old manhood, and there was a serious shortage of cutting-edge warships available.
It is worth mentioning that in the game "World of Warships", there are many prototypes of warships that have belonged to the ABDA fleet, including the aforementioned Mabelhead, Exeter and HL Java, Druith and a particularly strange existence: the X-class special destroyer Tromp - the prototype is the above-mentioned Tromp, which meets the cruiser standard in terms of tonnage and armament, but the level of protection and positioning is a destroyer, so we got such a strange thing in the X-class: huge, bulky but very well concealed, The firepower is strong, and as a destroyer, it has a detailed core capsule armor layout (but no black card), a strange mixture of extremely fast but inpowerful "iron stick yam" torpedoes and 150mm oversized guns, and can call for land-based bomber air strikes like other HL ships. Not only is the ability to rejuvenate the game first-class, but he has served in the navies of the Netherlands, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, with a rich history and good collection value. A good collection of historical parties that cannot be missed.
Before the formation of the ABDA fleet, in order to make up for the dilemma of the lack of capital ships of the Royal Navy, the British Royal Navy sent the Prince of Wales of the King George V-class new capital ship and the veteran battlecruiser Counterattack and the aircraft carrier Indomitable to form the Z fleet, trying to deter the Japanese Navy with the strategy of having a fleet, but the British were obviously too superstitious about the big ships and huge guns: the Indomitable was stranded in the port of Jamaica for maintenance a month ago, so the Prince of Wales and the Counterattack will go to Singapore alone, They were virtually incapable of facing the Japanese air threat.
The Counter Strike is also one of the representatives of the Royal Navy in many entertainment works, and in "World of Warships" she is a value-added battleship launched with the Y series battlecruiser technology tree, with excellent sailing performance and abundant firepower, which is perfect for a ship familiar with the battle cruiser style. Sister Ship Prestige and Modified Prestige '44 are also implemented in the game, and if you're a historian, don't forget to collect a Prestige Sister, after all, this is a model of Royal Navy shipbuilding.
Soon, the good students of the British showed that they were strong enough to be a teacher. On December 8, with the bombardment, the Japanese fleet also sailed into the Malayan waters, and Admiral Phillips, then commander of the Z fleet, was quite confident that his ship would not be fatally damaged by air raids - the largest tonnage battleship sunk by air raids at that time was only a heavy cruiser, but he clearly underestimated the performance of Japanese torpedo planes and aerial torpedoes. They even rejected the offer of Lieutenant Vigos, commander of the Royal Australian Air Force's 453rd Squadron, to provide daytime air cover with six F2A fighters: despite the F2A's poor performance, they may not have been able to prevent the tragedy of Fleet Z. Lieutenant Vigos later commented that it was "a very costly way to learn a lesson"
In the chaos, the Z fleet went out to search for the Japanese fleet, but the lack of aerial reconnaissance intelligence made them find nothing, but on the afternoon of the 9th, the Japanese water reconnaissance plane and the I-65 submarine successively observed the movement of the Z fleet, and the empty Phillips ordered to return to Singapore, but on this night, the two fleets were close to the range of 5 nautical miles, but the delay of the reconnaissance report and the cover of the night made both sides blind, and finally passed by, and the Z fleet returned in vain.
At 10 a.m. the next day, the Dortness at a position 140 nautical miles southeast of the Z-Fleet reported that it had been attacked by an air raid, and from 11 a.m., a large number of Japanese planes pounced on the Z Fleet. The first wave of attacks hit the deck position of the Counterattack, reducing its speed to 25 knots; The second wave of torpedo planes dropped at least six torpedoes on the Prince of Wales, one of which hit the right side of the stern, and a huge amount of seawater poured into the severely damaged power compartment, the Prince of Wales quickly tilted to the left, the anti-aircraft guns were difficult to function, and the tail large-caliber high-level dual-purpose gun directly lost power, she could only keep sailing at a speed of 15 knots, and at 12 o'clock the captain ordered to abandon the ship, and finally capsized and sank at 13 o'clock, and the captain and Admiral Phillips died.
The third wave of the Japanese attack sequence dropped more than 20 torpedoes on the counterattack, after the captain of the counterattack, William Tennant, with his skillful technology to dodge the first two waves of bombing and torpedoes, but in the face of the third attack after all, it was difficult to parry, after dodging 19 torpedoes, was hit by two or more torpedoes, quickly lost power and overturned in the water, Tennant immediately ordered to abandon the ship, but her capsizing was too fast, a large number of sailors failed to escape, Tennant wanted to be martyred, and was later forcibly rescued by his subordinates, Becoming the highest-ranking survivor of the naval battle, he continued to be active on the battlefield and participated in the command of the Allied Anglo-French supply lines during the Normandy landings, just as he did in Dunkirk, the veteran Worcestershire sailor used his efforts to protect the living forces of the Allied Navy and Army, and now in the new version of World of Warships theme action to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, the historical commander awarded in the third part of the progress is to commemorate this veteran captain who is deeply supported by his subordinates and has first-class skills.
After this battle, the Prince of Wales and the Counterattack became the first capital ships to be sunk by pure air power under defense, the vulnerability of surface ships in the face of air threats was exposed, the Japanese buried all the capital ships of the Royal Navy in the Pacific at a slight cost of 3 attack aircraft, and the Japanese army gained sea supremacy over almost all of Southeast Asia, and the subsequent ABDA fleet also lost possible capital ship assistance, and could only resist on a small scale with the Dutch cruiser Druyt as the flagship. And finally ushered in the end of the tragic road in Surabaya.