Posted on 12/03/2011 5:27:17 AM PST by Homer_J_Simpson
Strongly anti-war since you’ve been doing this?
So she is opposing WW2? lol.
The Flag ship of Naval Fleet Force Z, battleship HMS Prince of Wales coming to moor in Singapore December 1941( IWM Collections)
Wearing her unusual black and white disruptive colour scheme, HMS Repulse is pictured as part of Force Z in company with HMS Prince of Wales and the destroyer Vampire. These two mighty battleships were to be lost within hours of each other, the victims of intense Japanese air strikes. Vampire and the destroyer Electra were on hand to pick up survivors from both ships.
But Force Z was not attacked by Zeros, nor was it likely to steam within range of them. Force Z was attacked by twin engine, slow, poorly protected Nells operating near the limit of their range. The Fairey Fulmars would probably have made quick work of them.
The likely outcome of surviving the attack of December 8 would have been that Force Z would have eventually left Singapore for Djarkarta, where it would have been available for the Battle of the Java Sea, an even more interesting “what if.”
No, but I think that's because the Japanese probably didn't believe they needed to use them. The 22nd Air Flotilla which conducted the attack had eighteen fighters (with an additional 6 in reserve) at their disposal that they would likely have sent with the attack force if the carrier had been known to be with them.
According to interrogations of surviving members that are mentioned in the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey, of that air unit, their bombers were all Betty type and not Nell. The Betty has an operational range of 2694 miles while the Zero can only go 1,930. The point of contact with the ships though, they report, is only 50 miles away from Kwantan Airfield off Malaysia. That's only around 530 miles from Saigon where this air unit was stationed.
It is an interesting "what if", but I think I lean more to the side that the Repulse, Prince of Wales, and the Illustrious would have been sunk had she been with the group.
Now, "what if" those battle cruisers and the Illustrious been available for the Battle of Java Sea. That opens up all kinds of possibilities.
Good point, but I would have to wonder what they had in Honolulu. Everything I’ve seen on messages sent from Honolulu is in the old J-19 code. They may not have even had a cipher for decoding Purple. They certainly would not have had anything for any of the JN-25 series.
That really does play a role. All the information that Kimmel and Short needed was right there for them, but they just missed. It doesn’t necessarily mean they should bear the burden of all the responsibility for it, but they must accept their large portion of it.
To be fair, no one knew that the Japanese bombers were in range, and the RAF failed to provide fighter cover.
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