 Winston Churchill , now the Prime Minister , noted that since the German battleship Tirpitz was tying up a superior British fleet , a small British fleet at Singapore might have a similar disproportionate effect on the Japanese . The Foreign Office expressed the opinion that the presence of modern battleships at Singapore might deter Japan from entering the war . In October 1941 , the Admiralty therefore ordered HMS Prince of Wales to depart for Singapore , where it would be joined by HMS Repulse . The carrier HMS Indomitable was to join them , but it ran aground off Jamaica on 3 November , and no other carrier was available . 
