Somerville surprises the Japanese April 1942

The Fairey Fulmar was indeed faster than the biplanes further used in the FAA, but still basically an addapted light bomber (derived from the Fairey Battle of the RAF) and much slower than the A6M-2, currently in use at the time on the IJN carriers. The A6M was at least 260 kph faster anyway. In any sort of direct confrontation the superior speed of the leightweight single seat A6M had the upperhand over the lumbering twin seated large and not so well turning and climing Fairey Fulmar. The slower Swordfish might have had a bigger change to survive, basically as it was very slow, with just around 150 kph or so, forcing the A6M to use drastic measures to slow down and take aim. (By increasing drag, such as lowering the landinggear, also used as a tactic by the even faster Bf-109's during the Chanaldash of the German Brest Fleet.)

FAIREY FULMAR MARK I:
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spec metric english
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wingspan 14.15 meters 46 feet 5 inches
wing area 31.77 sq_meters 342 sq_feet
length 12.24 meters 40 feet 1 inch
height 4.27 meters 14 feet

empty weight 3,955 kilograms 8,720 pounds
MTO weight 4,855 kilograms 10,700 pounds

max speed at altitude 400 KPH 250 MPH / 215 KT
service ceiling 6,255 meters 21,500 feet
endurance 4 hours
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Specifications (A6M2 Type 0 Model 21)

Data from The Great Book of Fighters[23]

General characteristics
Performance
Armament

i think you missed my point.Because of the reduction in the relative speed of a fulmar vs an a6m as compared to the relative speed between an albacore and an a6m the fulmar would have a longer time interval between being spotted and destroyed.thereby allowing more time to report the position.a fulmar would also have the option of flying at a significantly higher altitude than an albacore.this would also give more time to report.Now if all the guns were removed then the speed and altitude of the fulmar would both increase giving a potentially longer survival time.Unfortunately i doubt if somerville had sufficient fulmars available to conduct a full search.O for the want of an extra hanger deck instead of an armoured flight deck.Give me 7 ark royals and the butterflies would be massing,inspite of the lower quality aircraft.
 
Royal Navy succeeds in night air torpedo attack. No matter how much damage the RN does, the Japanese are going to attempt a counter attack. Japanese doctrine at the time is all offense.

I might be wrong, but I thought the IJN preferred damaging the enemy with little loss to themselves over destroying the enemy but taking heavy losses.

IIRC, their actions at Midway were caused partly by a wish to come away from the battle with something to show for their losses, and partly due to a belief that they had already sunk 2 US carriers.
 
HMS Warspite wrote:



Are you sure about that figure? The Fulmar MkII could do at least 272 mph (and allegedly the boost had been tweaked so it may actually have been faster than that), so 331 - 272 = 59 mph = 94 kph.

The Fulmar was also much faster in the dive (it had been tested as a dive-bomber with a 500lb bomb) so it could certainly get away from an A6M in a steep dive.


Diving is not relevant, if you cannot overhaul your target/hunter first. Ghe differnece simply was too big, as the Fulmar basically was still a bomber airframe, rather than a single seat sleek fightertype aircraft, with a better engine power to weight ratio. A Spitfire would have been a better choice, even with its problems of lacking sealegs.

The error of the speed difference was on my side though, as I read the maximum never exceeded speed, instesad of maximum speed with was 533 kph to just a lowly 400 kph on the Fulmar, in its fastest version. Fulmar's would not stand a chance at all and the theoretical advantage over the even slower biplanes is neglegtable, as the IJN Zero pilots all were already very much veteran status, not making rooky type mistakes.
 
Would have been interesting if the returning fleet was ambushed by Truant or Trusty in the Malacca Strait.
 
The Eastern Fleet had just two submarines in april 1942: HMS Truant and HMS Trusty, both T-Class submarines. They operated from Diamond Harbor (today Bangladesh) most of the time. In reality, both boats were not used to their full potential, as the chaos of the spring 1942 affected their usefulness and the boats were often deployed in places where there was no threat at all, or restricted to intelligence missions, not allowing them to strike shipping. (Mainly because they were the only two boats left in the region, appart from a handfull of surviving Dutch submarines.)
 
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