 Prince of Wales and Repulse were the first capital ships to be sunk solely by naval air power on the open sea (albeit by land-based rather than carrier-based aircraft), a harbinger of the diminishing role this class of ships was to play in naval warfare thereafter. It is often pointed out, however, that a contributing factor to the sinking of Prince of Wales was her surface-scanning radar being inoperable, depriving Force Z of one of its most potent early-warning devices and the early critical damage she sustained from the first torpedo. Another factor which led to Prince of Wales's demise was the additional loss of dynamos, depriving Prince of Wales of many of her pumps. Further electrical failures left parts of the ship in total darkness and added to the difficulties of her damage repair parties as they attempted to counter the flooding. The sinking was the subject of an inquiry chaired by Mr. Justice Bucknill, but the true causes of the ship's loss were only established when divers examined the wreck after the war. The Director of Naval Construction's report on the sinking claimed that the ship's anti-aircraft guns could have " inflicted heavy casualties before torpedoes were dropped, if not preventing the successful conclusion of attack had crews been more adequately trained in their operation.
