HMS Repulse (1916)

HMS Repulse on manoeuvres in the 1920s
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Repulse
Ordered:	30 December 1914
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland
Laid down:	25 January 1915
Launched:	8 January 1916
Commissioned:	18 August 1916
Motto:	Qui Tangit Frangitur "Who touches me is broken"
Nickname(s):	Repair
Fate:	Sunk on 10 December 1941 by Japanese air attack off Kuantan, South China Sea
General characteristics (1916)
Class and type:	Renown-class battlecruiser
Displacement:	27,200 long tons (27,600 t) (normal) 32,220 long tons (32,740 t) (deep load)
Length:	750 ft 2 in (228.7 m) p.p. 794 ft 1.5 in (242.0 m) (o.a.)
Beam:	90 ft 1.75 in (27.5 m)
Draught:	27 ft (8.2 m)
Installed power:	112,000 shp (84,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × shafts, 2 × Steam turbine sets, 42 × water-tube boilers
Speed:	31.5 knots (58.3 km/h; 36.2 mph)
Crew:	967 1222 (1919)
Armament:	3 × 2 – 15-inch (381 mm) guns 6 × 3, 2 × 1 – 4-inch (102 mm) guns 2 × 1 – 3-inch (76 mm) anti-aircraft guns 2 × 1 – submerged 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 3–6 in (76–152 mm) Decks: 1–2.5 in (25–64 mm) Barbettes: 4–7 in (102–178 mm) Gun turrets: 7–9 in (178–229 mm) Conning tower: 10 in (254 mm) Bulkheads: 3–4 in (76–102 mm)
General characteristics (1939)
Displacement:	34,600 long tons (35,200 t)
Length:	794 ft 2.5 in (242.1 m) (o/a)
Beam:	89 ft 11.5 in (27.4 m)
Draught:	29 ft 8 in (9.0 m)
Installed power:	112,000 shp (84,000 kW)
Propulsion:	4 × shafts, 4 × direct-drive steam turbines
Speed:	about 31 knots (57 km/h; 36 mph)
Range:	3,650 nmi (6,760 km; 4,200 mi)
Complement:	1,181
Armament:	3 × 2 – 15-inch (381 mm) guns 4 × 3 – 4-inch (102 mm) guns 6 × 1 – 4-inch (102 mm) AA guns 2 × 8 – 40-millimetre (1.6 in) 2-pounder "pom-pom" AA guns 8 × 21 in (530 mm) Mk II torpedo tubes
Armour:	Belt: 2–9 in (51–229 mm) Decks: 1–4 in (25–102 mm), otherwise no change
Aircraft carried:	4 × seaplanes
Aviation facilities:	1 × double-ended aircraft catapult

HMS Repulse was a Renown-class battlecruiser of the Royal Navy built during the First World War. Originally laid down as an improved version of the Revenge-class battleships, her construction was suspended on the outbreak of war because she would not be ready in a timely manner. Admiral Lord Fisher, upon becoming First Sea Lord, gained approval to restart her construction as a battlecruiser that could be built and enter service quickly. The Director of Naval Construction (DNC), Eustace Tennyson-D'Eyncourt, quickly produced an entirely new design to meet Admiral Lord Fisher's requirements and the builders agreed to deliver the ships in 15 months. They did not quite meet that ambitious goal, but the ship was delivered a few months after the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Repulse, and her sister HMS Renown, were the world's fastest capital ships upon completion.

Repulse participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in 1917; the only combat she saw during the war. She was reconstructed twice between the wars; the 1920s reconstruction increased her armour protection and made lesser improvements, while the 1930s reconstruction was much more thorough. Repulse accompanied the battlecruiser HMS Hood during the Special Service Squadron's round-the-world cruise in 1923–24 and protected international shipping during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–39.

The ship spent the first months of the Second World War hunting for German raiders and blockade runners. She participated in the Norwegian Campaign of April–June 1940 and searched for the German battleship Bismarck in 1941. Repulse escorted a troop convoy around the Cape of Good Hope from August to October 1941 and was transferred to East Indies Command. She was assigned in November to Force Z which was supposed to deter Japanese aggression against British possessions in the Far East. Repulse and her consort Prince of Wales were eventually sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December 1941 when they attempted to intercept landings in British Malaya.