Daily Event for May 3


May 3, 1939 at the yard of Cammel Laird the HMS Prince of Wales was launched. Even though she was not
completely operational, the second of the King George V Class battleships took part in the search for the
German battleship Bismarck. On May 24, 1941 Prince of Wales and HMS Hood took part in the Battle of the
Denmark Strait in which Hood was sunk and Prince of Wales was damaged and 14 of her crew were killed.

Following repairs the Prince of Wales took Sir Winston Churchill to meet with President Franklin D. Roosevelt
for the signing of the Atlantic Charter. Prince of Wales was then used on an escort mission and dispatched to
the far east. It was there on Dec. 10, 1941 that the Prince of Wales and the HMS Repulse were caught off
Malaysia by Japanese aircraft and sunk with the loss of 327 of her crew including her captain.

© 2006 Michael W. Pocock
MaritimeQuest.com