5 days ago
‘The Japanese dropped a bomb right behind me – this is how I survived'
A 105-year-old navy veteran has told the Duchess of Edinburgh how he survived the Japanese bombing of HMS Repulse after a bomb dropped on the deck directly behind him.
Jim Wren sat down for a cup of tea and cake with the Duchess at his care home in Salisbury, where he recalled extraordinary stories of survival ahead of the 80th anniversary of VJ Day on Friday.
Both HMS Prince of Wales, then Britain's newest and most powerful battleship, and her consort, the battlecruiser Repulse, were sunk off the east coast of Malaysia by Japanese naval planes on December 10 1941, three days after the attack on the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. It was the Royal Navy's greatest single defeat of the Second World War.
Mr Wren, who was later captured and held as a prisoner of war for more than three years, has joined calls for the anchor of the Prince of Wales to be returned to the UK and installed at the memorial to those who died at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, unveiled in 2011.
Mr Wren told the Duchess of the moment they came under attack: 'It was around 11 o'clock in the morning. I was having a cup of tea on the mess deck and the alarm was raised.
'I dropped my cup and as I left the mess deck, the first bomb dropped right behind me.
'Fortunately, it didn't explode – I was able to go down two or three decks before it exploded. That saved my life.'
He added: 'From then onwards it was a case of actions, actions, and it was torpedo after torpedo and they eventually got nine hits.'
Mr Wren sat with the other young reserve gun crew for more than an hour listening to the roar of battle before emerging into chaos.
He has previously told The Telegraph how he then stripped off his heavier clothing, climbed over the side, crawled over the bilges and into the water. 'There was no time to freeze with fear,' he said. 'It was do or die.'
The two ships shot down just three of 85 Japanese aircraft before succumbing. Of the 1,612 aboard the Prince of Wales, 327 died, while on Repulse, 513 from a complement of 1,309 perished.
Asked by the Duchess, who is patron of the Java Far East Prisoner of War Club 1942, if his family knew he had survived, Mr Wren said: 'It was right until the end of the war until they knew I was alive. So they suffered all this time.'
The veteran described how he was later captured by Japanese soldiers alongside a group of civilians as they attempted to flee Singapore by boat.
'It must have been awful, because you were surrounded by women and children,' the Duchess said.
Mr Wren nodded. 'We didn't know [where] our next meal was coming from, or [where] our next drink was coming from...' he explained.
'They had no idea how to deal with prisoners of war, the Japanese – no idea.'
Mr Wren was kept as a prisoner in Sumatra before being released in August 1945, after Japan surrendered.
There was laughter when the Duchess asked him what had attracted him to the Navy. 'Nothing attracted me to the Navy – I didn't want to be in the Navy,' he admitted.
Mr Wren applied to join the RAF and the Army when he was 19, but was turned down.
He then joined the Navy after his uncle, a retired Royal Marine, was recalled up on reserve.
The wrecks of both the Prince of Wales and Repulse have been designated as official war graves but that has not stopped them from being preyed upon by salvage merchants.
Campaigners and relations of those who died aboard HMS Repulse have long called for parts of the warship to be recovered to serve as a memorial before scrap metal scavengers further desecrate the last resting place of her crew.
The bronze propellers disappeared between September 2012 and May 2013, followed by components made of other ferrous metals and blocks of steel and aluminium.
Campaign for return of artefects to UK
In April 2023, the Maritime Archaeology Sea Trust (Mast) tracked a Chinese purpose-built salvage barge that had looted the Prince of Wales wreckage to a breakers' yard on the south coast of Malaysia.
There, two of the ship's anchors, alongside other artefacts, are still being held. One of the anchors remains in good condition and the organisation is campaigning for it to be returned to the UK where it can be conserved and then installed at the national memorial.
But Jessica Berry, founder and chief executive of Mast, said the Malaysians were keen to keep it for themselves, having built a new structure 'where they think it will look very nice.'
She added: 'Our aim is the anchor to be conserved and installed at the National Memorial Arboretum as a fitting memorial to those who died, as per Jim Wren's wishes.'
Mr Wren said: 'We would like the anchor to go to the memorial at the National Arboretum.'
The war veteran became emotional as he spoke about the 80th anniversary of VJ Day commemorations.
'When we got back, the government didn't want to know and told us not to talk about it,' he said.
On Friday, the King will deliver an audio address to the nation to mark the historic anniversary VJ Day before joining the Queen at a Service of Remembrance at the National Memorial Arboretum.
