Force Z was the name given to the British battlefleet that sailed to Singapore in the autumn of 1941. Churchill himself described it as the best deterrent and the one key weapon that would prevent the Japanese gaining a foothold in the South Pacific. But behind the impressive name lay a less impressive reality - Force Z consisted of only two ships: the battleship Prince of Wales and the 25-year-old cruiser Repulse. In a time when the days of the battleship as an effective weapon in maritime warfare were numbered, such an action proved to be a terrible mistake. This work traces the history behind this tragic bluff. From the end of World War I to the inevitable sinking of these two ships, it is a comprehensive history of the decline of the battleship in modern warfare, culminating in the battle that proved finally that a navy without air cover could not survive as an effective fighting force.