Churchill was ass for sending them,specially after the Imperial Japanese Navy just displayed in aces 3 days earlier what sea launched airpower was capable of. He couldn't bring himself to admit that Britania didn't rule the waves anymore.Japan had not only the biggest but most advanced NAVY afloat at the dawn of WWII
Nubbz,
This was your initial post on this issue. It was, is, and remains factually wrong.
The decision to send Repulse and POW out of Singapore was a local, tactical decision. It would have been wildly inappropriate for such a decision to be made by a head of state. It wasn't, the decision was made at the appropriate level by Admiral Phillips in Singapore aboard POW:
https://www.navygeneralboard.com/the-loss-of-prince-of-wales-and-repulse/?amp=1Note that Phillips "
did not make the decision lightly, calling a meeting of his senior officers aboard the Prince of Wales at 12.30 on 8 December and outlining the options.[20] They could, he said, stay where they were and get bombed; withdraw out of reach of the Japanese; or attack the invasion force. His officers were clear. The invasion force had to be tackled."Your assertion that Winston Churchill made this decision is unequivocally and indisputably wrong.
That link also addresses the reasons for sending Repulse and POW to the Far East in the first place. As
@Cincydawg and I have patiently explained repeatedly, they were sent in the hope of deterring Japanese aggression. However, the link reminded me of two other reasons that were even more important:
First, the British needed to demonstrate to the Australians, New Zealanders, and other Far Eastern members of the Commonwealth that they would provide defense for them.
The Australians particularly were alarmed by Japanese aggression and reasonably feared that the British would prioritize defense of the home islands at the expense of the defense of Australia.
This was such a serious issue that:
"
Australian and New Zealand alarm at the growing Pacific crisis reached the point where both Dominions began holding forces back for local defence, instead of sending them to join Britain’s ground war in North Africa. The Australian government also threatened to pull its army divisions out of Egypt."Second, the British considered it critical to demonstrate their resolve to the United States to encourage the US not to simply concede. As it turned out that was unnecessary but the British didn't know that when they ordered Repulse and POW to the Far East.
Churchill made lots of mistakes. He is decidedly NOT my hero despite your false assertion otherwise. What you seem to fail to grasp is that neither
@Cincydawg nor I are arguing that Churchill was a genius or hero. This whole question is irrelevant to your initial mistake. Irrespective of how smart or dumb Churchill was, he absolutely, unequivocally, and indisputably did NOT order Repulse and POW out of Singapore to impede the Japanese invasion of Malaya.