Admiral Beez
Major
On 5 April 1942, Somerville's Force A, built around HMS Warspite, Formidable and Indomitable, approached to approximately 100 nautical miles of Admiral Nagumo's carrier force at one point. He had roughly 30 Albacore torpedo bombers potentially available for a night strike. I don't know if all, but some of these Albacore's were radar equipped. I believe, British reconnaissance aircraft had located Nagumo's force but did not maintain reliable contact. What do we need to change to make the night attack happen? And what are the most likely and best possible impacts can we expect? Sommerville also needs to do a runner asap, since if the British carriers remained within Japanese striking range after sunrise, Nagumo's surviving carriers will launch a massive counterstrike.
pacificeagles.net/indian-ocean-raid-colombo
In the daylight, there is no comparison.
Could the RAF participate in a night raid at sea? There were still 14 surviving Bristol Blenheims of No. 11 Squadron RAF on Ceylon on 5 April 1942. That might be outside their aircrew training, navigation and expertise. Perhaps in the morning of April 6th a Blenheim strike can hit any damaged carrier left behind. With all of four squadrons (1xBlenheims, 3xHurricanes), plus a few PBYs, it's a shame how little RAF presence there was on Ceylon. Just a few weeks after Nagumo's raid the RAF launched over one thousand bombers over Cologne in Operation Millennium.
pacificeagles.net/indian-ocean-raid-colombo
In the daylight, there is no comparison.
Could the RAF participate in a night raid at sea? There were still 14 surviving Bristol Blenheims of No. 11 Squadron RAF on Ceylon on 5 April 1942. That might be outside their aircrew training, navigation and expertise. Perhaps in the morning of April 6th a Blenheim strike can hit any damaged carrier left behind. With all of four squadrons (1xBlenheims, 3xHurricanes), plus a few PBYs, it's a shame how little RAF presence there was on Ceylon. Just a few weeks after Nagumo's raid the RAF launched over one thousand bombers over Cologne in Operation Millennium.
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