The Prince of Wales had an active but very short period in service with the Royal Navy. She was the second of five battleships in the King George V Class. She had a full load displacement of 40,990 tonnes with a top speed of 27.8 knots; armament: ten 356 mm cannon, sixteen 133 mm guns, forty eight 40 mm guns and numerous 20 mm weapons. The Prince of Wales was launched in February 1939 and completed on 4th March 1940. Together with the Hood, she was sent to hunt the Bismarck and the Prince Eugen before she was fully operational. After the loss of the Hood on 24th May 1941, when already seriously damaged the Prince of Wales fired on the Bismarck, hitting the target several times, and partly disabled it before turning away. Towards the end of 1941 she was ordered to Singapore. She was finally attacked and sunk by Japanese heavy aircraft in the seas off Malaysia on 10th December 1941.