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On the evening of 9th December 1941, Force Z was within five miles of the IJN's 7th Cruiser Squadron, comprising five heavy cruisers and three destroyers. An IJN reconnaissance flight dropped a flare having misidentified the cruiser CHOKAI as the PRINCE OF WALES; this prompted Admiral Philips to abandon the operation on the grounds that surprise had been lost.
The two forces were actually within gunnery range of one another - just ten thousand yards, comparable to the North Sea actions of twenty-five years previously. What if the flare had given the British just enough light to identify the Japanese cruisers?
See here for a map of the forces and movements. Note the rather ominous Japanese force to the northeast of the proposed encounter. Barring extreme good luck on the part of the British forces, this ends badly - but they'll die with their boots on and facing the enemy. That should have major consequences.