At Just about the same time, while at Freetown in early April , Illustrious had increased her air complement to 25 Martlets, 2 Fulmars and 21 Swordfish.
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Formidable: 16 Martlet, 6 Fulmar, 22 Albacore
Indomitable: 12 Fulmar, 10 Sea Hurricane, 24 Albacore
The Japanese have the Mk 1 Eyeball, thousands of them. They will not only see them, but hear them, Beauforts though, not Torbeau. Unless you have a time machine of course.Illustrious is doable, and she can ferry a deck load of RAF aircraft. To me, much of the trap is a RAF affair. The RN have their strike and reconnoitre role, but the heavy fist will be the RAF. Without the benefit of radar, the IJNAF won't see the Beaufighters coming.
Of course they'll see them when they're overhead, but only the very few, if any Zeros on CAP will be able to intervene. I'm envisioning over two hundred torpedo strike aircraft approaching from all directions, followed by dive bombers (Skua, maybe Chesapeake?) and level bombers (Battle, Wellington, Blenheim, etc), all escorted by Spitfires, Fulmars and Hurricanes. The size of the British strike must be large enough to overwhelm any IJNAF CAP. Too soon for Beaufighters; so the torpedo strike falls to Beauforts, Hampdens, Swordfish, Albacores and finally the poor chaps of Ceylon's 273 Squadron, the RAF's last Vilderbeest unit.The Japanese have the Mk 1 Eyeball, thousands of them. They will not only see them, but hear them,
Of course they'll see them when they're overhead, but only the very few, if any Zeros on CAP will be able to intervene. I'm envisioning over two hundred torpedo strike aircraft approaching from all directions, followed by dive bombers (Skua, maybe Chesapeake?) and level bombers (Battle, Wellington, Blenheim, etc), all escorted by Spitfires, Fulmars and Hurricanes. The size of the British strike must be large enough to overwhelm any IJNAF CAP. Too soon for Beaufighters; so the torpedo strike falls to Beauforts, Hampdens, Swordfish, Albacores and finally the poor chaps of Ceylon's 273 Squadron, the RAF's last Vilderbeest unit.
Do we have enough time to apply any learnings from the RAF and FAA's failed attempt to stop the Channel Dash on Feb 11/12, 1942? Approximately 450 strike and fighter aircraft failed to do any damage to the German battlefleet sailing just off the English coast. Can they do better at Ceylon seven weeks later?
At Just about the same time, while at Freetown in early April , Illustrious had increased her air complement to 25 Martlets, 2 Fulmars and 21 Swordfish.
Seems reasonable enough. Let's do it.Yes, and if Illustrious hadn't collided with Formidable in Dec, then it very likely could have been in the Indian Ocean by then.
For this hypothetical you might assume that it arrives in the Indian Ocean by late Mar
The Kongos are fast where as the IJN battleships were slow. So based on Nagato or Mutsu top speed then the fleet would be moving much slower. So interesting if the speed of the fleet was based on Nagato or Kongo since reports only mentioned battleships.
Agreed, all about the airpower, but it's not pure carrier action. With Nagumo bringing his fleet to within two hundred miles off Ceylon's southern coast, the RAF has a major role to play here with their long range Catalina reconnaissance and intel gathering, and multi-engine torpedo strike aircraft and high performance fighters.This would be Midway before Midway and pure carrier action. So all about the airpower.
Leave all the battleships in home waters. Sommerville has no use for HMS Warspite and the four unmodernized Revenge-class battleships. This Ceylon trap is an air power affair.1941 was a very bad year for British battleships so best will in the world what can you send? Hood? Barham? Prince of Wales and so on and so.
We can see how close Nagumo came to Ceylon. Well within range of a Spitfire-escorted heavy RAF strike.
Does anyone else shudder at the thought of Swordfish and Albacores doing a daylight attack on 2 Japanese fleet carriers?
As far as light ammo load on the Zero goes, Zeroes carried plenty of 30 caliber ammo, more than enough to down unarmored open cockpit biplanes
No, because done right the Stringbags and Applecores will be in the company of many Hampdens and Beauforts. And the Zeros have their work cut out for them, as from above will come Skuas and Fulmars dive bombing and level bombers, plus Spitfires, etc. The IJN have no radar, and IIRC the Zeros on CAP did not have radios to alert the fleet.Does anyone else shudder at the thought of Swordfish and Albacores doing a daylight attack on 2 Japanese fleet carriers?
The IJN have no radar, and IIRC the Zeros on CAP did not have radios to alert the fleet.
And then on to Tokyo Bay and shoot the Emperor.AIUI, in the late afternoon/early evening of 5 April, Somerville was ~100nm from Hiryu and Soryu, which had become separated by about 20-30nm from the IJN main body. At that point in time, Formidable and Indomitable could have hit Hiryu and Soryu and sank them both in very short order, with a massed dive bomber strike using his Albacores, during the early evening of 5 April 1942. Historically, the RN was preparing an Albacore TB strike, which was not ideal, IMHO, but given the design of Hiryu and Soryu, they should have been vulnerable to torpedo attack as well.
If Somerville had Hermes and her 12 Swordfish, he could have increased his own early evening recon with those Swordfish and hopefully maintained contact with Hiryu and Soryu long enough to have hit them. With Illustrious and her 21 ASV equipped Swordfish Somerville would have been able to maintain contact and maybe hit the other 3 IJN carriers before morning.
Similarly, with some additional recon, Somerville would have been able spot the IJN early enough to have caught them at dawn on 5 April either before or just after they sent off their strike against Ceylon.