HMS Prince of Wales was a King George V-class battleship of the Royal Navy, built at the Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead, England.She was involved in several key actions of the Second World War, including the battle of Denmark Strait against the Bismarck, operations escorting convoys in the Mediterranean, and her final action and sinking in the Pacific in 1941. Prince of Wales first encountered the Germans while being outfitted in her drydock, being attacked and damaged by German aircraft.She was heavily involved in the first contact with the German battleship Bismarck and the cruiser Prinz Eugen, and landed a critical hit on Bismarck, causing her to make the ill fated decision to return to port.Prince of Wales suffered heavy damage during the engagement and had to return to Rosyth to be repaired.Prince of Wales transported Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Newfoundland Conference with US President Franklin D.Roosevelt. On 25 October 1941 Prince of Wales departed for Singapore to join Force Z, a British naval detachment.She docked there on 2 December with the rest of the force and at 02:11 on 10 December Force Z was dispatched to investigate reports of Japanese landing forces at Kuantan.On arriving there they found the reports to be false.At 11:00 that morning Japanese bombers and torpedo aircraft began their assault on Force Z.In a second attack at 11:30 torpedoes struck Prince of Wales on the port side, wrecking the outer propeller shaft and causing the ship to take on a heavy list.A third torpedo attack developed against Repulse but she managed to avoid all torpedoes aimed at her.A fourth attack by torpedo-carrying Type 1 'Bettys' sank Repulse at 12:33.Six aircraft from this wave attacked Prince of Wales, with the ship listing four of their torpedoes passed below the armoured belt hitting the ships keel,causing more flooding.Finally a 500 kg bomb hit the catapult deck,penetrated through to the main deck and exploded, tearing a gash in the port side of the hull.At 13:15 the order was given to abandon ship and at 13:20 Prince of Wales sank.Vice-Admiral Tom Phillips and Captain John Leach were among 327 fatalities. Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by air power on the open sea, albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft.A harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ship was to subsequently play in naval warfare. The wreck lies upside down in 223 feet (68 m) of water, near Kuantan, in the South China Sea. HMS Prince of Wales is a protected War Grave, but is a popular attraction for divers.In 2002 shifting sand uncovered the ships bell, traditionally regarded as the 'soul' of the ship.The Ministry of Defence gave permission for the bell to be recovered, as it would be at risk of being stolen by 'treasure hunters'. The bell is now on display in the Mersey Maritime Museum, by kind permission of The Ministry of Defence, Royal Navy Museum Portsmouth,HMS Prince of Wales Survivors Association and The Mary Rose Archaeological Service Ltd.