Bell from battleship built by a city returns home

Sep 17 2008 Liverpool Daily Post

A BELL from HMS Prince of Wales, the battleship adopted by Liverpool which helped sink the Bismarck during World War II, has returned to the city.

It has been on loan in Malaysia for the last year, where it also took part in a ceremony at the site of where the ship was sunk off the coast of Singapore.

HMS Prince of Wales was built at Cammell Laird's Birkenhead shipyard between 1937 and 1941 and funded by £10m raised by Liverpool’s citizens, but was sunk months later by Japanese aircraft in 1941 with the loss of 327 lives.

However despite its short period of service, it was part of one of the pivotal moments in the Battle of the Atlantic. It was with HMS Hood when that ship was sunk by the enemy battleship Bismarck off Iceland in May.

During the action, two shells from the Prince of Wales damaged the Bismarck’s fuel tanks. This caused a large oil slick which led to the German warship was hunted down and sunk.

However soon after she was sent into the Indian Ocean to discourage Japanese aggression and was sunk, along with HMS Repulse.

The bell, which is seen as the symbol of the soul of a ship, was recovered in 2002.

Although it was initially housed in Portsmouth, a campaign brought it home to Liverpool in 2003 where it was put on display at Merseyside Maritime Museum to where it is now returning.