With five carriers available, it seems logical for the USN to keep two CVs in the Solomons/New Guinea/ Austrailia area, two carries raiding elsewhere and one refitting back at Pearl.
That suggests Watchtower goes better, with more/less guaranteed CV air on top til Henderson Field is running. Also suggests another CV skirmish, in SWPA, over control of the Solomons.
Would the Wasp stay in the Atlantic in this situation?
If she says then I could see her making additional club runs to Malta, freeing up Furious to accompany the Pedestal convey or maybe she would join the convoy herself.
That sounds likely. And it makes me wonder if that adds another CV to Judgment, with more damage done at Taranto as a result.
If Saratoga is in fine shape, would they send out Yorktown in the condition she was in when she got back from Coral Sea? She was a MESS! I'd guess that they would.
I'd guess held, as not necessary--but there's an even chance she wouldn't have been as badly hurt, with an additional USN CV at Coral Sea.
I'm less sure it butterflies Midway, given Japan's panic over Doolittle & Yamamoto's desire to draw out & destroy the USN. Might it delay MI? (Tho TBH, I'm not sure what IJN gains by waiting...)
Could this actually lead to an earlier Japanese pullback to the "Rabaul Line" (so to speak), shortening Japan's perimeter--& actually increasing her a/c strength in the short term?

It has the advantages of Carl Schwamberger's proposal, too--& the reduced use of FO for both MI & no Tokyo Express means more IJN flexibility much longer, right up through the U.S. invasion of the P.I. (presuming that goes ahead as scheduled...& provided English {Nimitz} doesn't raise the priority on tankers for the Sub Force in the meantime...)
This is the first WI I think I've ever seen where lower U.S. losses may
help Japan.
