HMS Indomitable

  • Thread starter Deleted member 9338
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Deleted member 9338

What was the HMS Indomitable air complement when she was launched and doing her shakedown cruise in the Carribean? Would she of made a difference for Force Z?
 
Having a carrier with them might save PoW and Repulse. If the IJN bombers attacks without fighter escort like OTL, they're gonna be torn apart by Indomitable's air group-after all, the G3M and G4M were both notoriously fragile.
 
Having a carrier like Ark Royal survive or Tirpitz being wounded earlier would do that. The Royal Navy captains of both battleships were good (Renown's CO deserved to make it) but what really needed to happen was weaken the Lutwaffen strike groups or neutralize the Kriegsmarine. At any one time the RN kept a battleship on it making Tirpitz the greatest investment for the Axis as a whole.
 
What was the HMS Indomitable air complement when she was launched and doing her shakedown cruise in the Carribean? Would she of made a difference for Force Z?

From fleet air arm archieve she had 24 Albacores, 12 Fulmars & 9 Sea Hurricanes at the start of her operational service. I believe the Japanese had 36 Zero's available that could have been used to escort attacks on Force Z.
 

Saphroneth

Banned
Am I right in thinking that a torpedo attack taking place against fighter opposition with fighter support is less coordinated than one with neither support nor opposition?
 
Even if she hadn't been grounded she couldn't have gotten to Singapore by December 10.

But if she had then Phillips would have not been blundering around blind like a clueless drunk, the Albacores would have been doing recon around the fleet and in the supposed target area, the Albacores probably would have detected the IJN cruiser force that Phillips almost ran into. IOTL I believe the torpedo bombers came in and conducted piecemeal attacks, which would have been reasonably easy for the 21 fighters to counter. The Japanese would have to have countered with a small number of massed, escorted raids or risk being defeated in detail.
 
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