Despite being sunk less than a year after she was commissioned, Prince of Wales had an extensive battle history, first seeing action in August while still being outfitted in her drydock , when she was attacked and damaged by German aircraft. In her brief career, she was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the May Battle of the Denmark Strait where she scored three hits on the German battleship Bismarck , forcing Bismarck to abandon her raiding mission and head to port for repairs.
Prince of Wales later escorted one of the Malta convoys in the Mediterranean, during which she was attacked by Italian aircraft.
In her final action, she attempted to intercept Japanese troop convoys off the coast of Malaya as part of Force Z when she was sunk by Japanese aircraft on 10 December , two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Prince of Wales and Repulse became the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was subsequently to play in naval warfare.
This treaty limited the number of ships each nation was allowed to build and capped the tonnage of all capital ships at 35, tons. As a result, the Admiralty ordered the construction of a new battleship class: the King George V class. Due to the provisions of both the Washington Naval Treaty and the Treaty of London, both of which were still in effect when the King George V s were being designed, the main armament of the class was limited to the inch mm guns prescribed under these instruments.
They were the only battleships built at that time to adhere to the treaty, and even though it soon became apparent to the British that the other signatories to the treaty were ignoring its requirements, it was too late to change the design of the class before they were laid down in She was launched on 3 May She was still fitting out when war was declared in September, causing her construction schedule, and that of her sister , King George V , to be accelerated.
