A little bit of a Britwank from a Yank that attempts a different twist on a long debated operation in the Indian Ocean.
Primary POD - Codebreakers and traffic analysts at the Far East Combined Bureau in Colombo actually provided Somerville with fairly accurate intelligence regarding Nagumo and Ozawa's Indian Ocean operation OTL. In this ATL, the information is even more accurate and timely and Somerville decides that trying to take on the Kido Butai is a fool's errand. However, he sees opportunity in the dispersed nature of the Japanese force deployments and instead (after a quick 2 April replenishment stop in Colombo) he takes the Eastern Fleet north into the Bay of Bengal to engage Admiral Ozawa's Malay Force which the Eastern Fleet outmatches in terms of airpower and surface firepower. Somerville is gambling that by the time Nagumo figures out what he is doing, his ships will be too far north for Nagumo to pursue them before he has to turn back. Somerville and Layton (the RN's onshore commander on Ceylon) have a few other surprises in store to keep Nagumo occupied south of Dondra Head as well.
Disclaimer - This ATL is based in part on the results of a "Trincomalee" scenario that I played on the old DOS based Carriers at War game that I still keep on an old laptop.
Primary POD - Codebreakers and traffic analysts at the Far East Combined Bureau in Colombo actually provided Somerville with fairly accurate intelligence regarding Nagumo and Ozawa's Indian Ocean operation OTL. In this ATL, the information is even more accurate and timely and Somerville decides that trying to take on the Kido Butai is a fool's errand. However, he sees opportunity in the dispersed nature of the Japanese force deployments and instead (after a quick 2 April replenishment stop in Colombo) he takes the Eastern Fleet north into the Bay of Bengal to engage Admiral Ozawa's Malay Force which the Eastern Fleet outmatches in terms of airpower and surface firepower. Somerville is gambling that by the time Nagumo figures out what he is doing, his ships will be too far north for Nagumo to pursue them before he has to turn back. Somerville and Layton (the RN's onshore commander on Ceylon) have a few other surprises in store to keep Nagumo occupied south of Dondra Head as well.
Disclaimer - This ATL is based in part on the results of a "Trincomalee" scenario that I played on the old DOS based Carriers at War game that I still keep on an old laptop.