HMS Exeter

[elcid]

Reading about Force Z, I cam across that Exeter was expected to join the force at Singapore when the war began.
Remember Execter was shown AT Singapore in some WITP mods, I decided to look it up. I found this:

Quote

It was February 1941 when as a young stoker I joined 'HMS Exeter' then famous for her role in the Battle of the River Plate. We did our working up trials near the Denmark Straits while keeping an eye open for the 'Bismark'. After several weeks we were ordered to Greenock to pick up a convoy for the Middle East.

We sailed via the Cape of Good Hope and up the Indian Ocean to Aden in the Red Sea. We continued convoying on this route from Durban to Aden for some months. We then moved farther east, Colombo, Bombay, Calcutta. On December 7th 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, we were off the coast of Burma with a convoy of troops heading for Rangoon. We were then ordered to make for Singapore to join 'HMS Prince of Wales' and 'HMS Repulse'. We arrived in Singapore on December 10th to find that they had both been sunk that day. We saw the survivors come in that night and we fed and clothed them in a warehouse near where we were berthed. They also had their tot of rum.

End quote

[warspite1]

If you want to mod "what ifs" then you could include HMAS Sydney and HMS Mauritius (assuming the former was not sunk by Kormoran the previous month, and the latter's refit was speeded up).

[m10bob]

ORIGINAL: elcid

Reading about Force Z, I cam across that Exeter was expected to join the force at Singapore when the war began.
Remember Execter was shown AT Singapore in some WITP mods, I decided to look it up. I found this:

Quote

It was February 1941 when as a young stoker I joined 'HMS Exeter' then famous for her role in the Battle of the River Plate. We did our working up trials near the Denmark Straits while keeping an eye open for the 'Bismark'. After several weeks we were ordered to Greenock to pick up a convoy for the Middle East.

We sailed via the Cape of Good Hope and up the Indian Ocean to Aden in the Red Sea. We continued convoying on this route from Durban to Aden for some months. We then moved farther east, Colombo, Bombay, Calcutta. On December 7th 1941, the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour, we were off the coast of Burma with a convoy of troops heading for Rangoon. We were then ordered to make for Singapore to join 'HMS Prince of Wales' and 'HMS Repulse'. We arrived in Singapore on December 10th to find that they had both been sunk that day. We saw the survivors come in that night and we fed and clothed them in a warehouse near where we were berthed. They also had their tot of rum.

End quote

My dad in law was also in that convoy, aboard the USS Wakefield with troops bound for Singapore.

http://www.cofepow.org.uk/index.html