4 October 1941. To the Far East Express was ordered to escort the battleship Prince of Wales to the Far East with her sister where the ships would form the nucleus of a new Eastern Fleet intended to deter Japanese aggression. The trio departed Greenock on 25 October and arrived at Colombo, Ceylon, on 28 November. The following day, the destroyers and Jupiter joined them from the Mediterranean Fleet as did the battlecruiser Repulse. The force then set course for Singapore, where they arrived on 2 December. Force Z After receiving the reports of the attack on Pearl Harbor and landings in Malaya by the Japanese, Force Z put to sea in the late afternoon of 8 December in an attempt to intercept the invasion convoys. This consisted of Prince of Wales and Repulse, escorted by four destroyers, Electra, Express, , and the Australian . The ships were spotted during the afternoon of 9 December by the , and floatplanes from several Japanese cruisers spotted the British ships later that afternoon and shadowed them until dark. Admiral Sir Tom Phillips decided to cancel the operation as the Japanese were now alerted. Force Z turned back during the evening, after having tried to deceive the Japanese that they were heading to Singora. At 00:50 on 10 December Admiral Philips received a signal of enemy landings at Kuantan and correspondingly altered course so that he would arrive shortly after dawn. The crew of the spotted Force Z at 02:20, reported their position, and fired five torpedoes, all of which missed. Based on this report the Japanese launched 11 reconnaissance aircraft before dawn to locate Force Z. Several hours later 86 bombers from the 22nd Air Flotilla based in Saigon were launched carrying bombs or torpedoes. Once the British ships reached Kuantan around 07:50, Express was sent to investigate the area, but there was nothing to find. The crew of a Mitsubishi G3M "Nell" reconnaissance bomber spotted the British at 10:15 and radioed in several reports; the first bombers arrived less than an hour later. They ignored the destroyers and sank both Prince of Wales and Repulse by 13:20. Electra and Vampire moved in to rescue survivors of Repulse, while Express rescued survivors of the Prince of Wales. All told, the three destroyers rescued over 2,081 survivors. Afterwards, Express escorted the minelayers Teviot Bank, , and the Dutch as they laid defensive minefield