Details: By: Richard Hough

This is the story of the great men of war whose task it was to halt the Japanese military dominating the Pacific. As they battled the enemy, their greatest threat were the underwater torpedoes. Britain did not want to face the prospect of war at sea without five new battleships, regardless of their cost. That is how the Prince of Wales and her four sisters came to represent the British team in the new battleship race.

Force Z was the name given to these British warships, equipped with their own torpedoes that sailed to the Far East in the autumn of 1941, with the potential support of naval aircraft. They sailed, amid deliberate publicity, in an extraordinary attempt to stop the Japanese declaring war. But the Navy was hard-pressed and could only spare an untried battleship and an obsolete battle cruiser. The plan was to operate out of the range of attack from the air.

When the Repulse and the Prince of Wales arrived in Singapore on 2 December, they were seen as the saviours of the British Empire. But the attack on Pearl Harbour followed five days later ... and Force Z was left alone to face the appalling might of Japan. Here is the fantastic story of the ships hounded to their death by enemy aircraft. Hour by hour the vicious slaughter went on until finally, in full sunlight, the ships were remorselessly destroyed and hundreds of brave men died.

'The Hunting of Force Z' is the dramatic story of those battles.