The Night Battle That Never Was: Somerville vs. Nagumo, April 1942

[ThomasP]

re

54 as built? The figure I have is 45 from Friedman. Where does yours come from? Have I missed something?

These numbers are from the ship's cover upon completion:

Large parts of the ship's cover used to be available online. I know I downloaded most of the documents, but I am not sure if I still have them or if they went away when my previous laptop crashed. I will look.

The number of practice bombs stowed was a surprise to me.

 

[Shortround6]

With the Kido Butai an ocean away, did the US consider a naval op to relieve or evacuate the Philippines?

I am sure they considered it and rejected it.

For the Japanese it was just under 4000 miles (land miles) from Singapore to Gulf of Aden, or a bit over 4000 miles from Singapore to the northern part of Madagascar. Adjust as you see fit for getting the Japanese to Singapore or for the needed logistics from Japanese bases.
For the US it is around 8000 miles from the California to the east side of Luzon. Problem here is that there are/were no sizable ports on the east side of the Island with the possible exception of Legazpi, which is/was about 560km southeast of Manila by road (?) and 1941 roads were ????

Going back to the Japanese, it is about 5200-5300 miles from the mouth of Gulf of Aden to the mouth of Manila Bay.
Chances of the US getting transports/freighters to the Philippines and unloading/loading them before the Japanese fleet returns from the Indian Ocean is pretty darn slim.
This assumes the US even has a semi-decent supply train (oilers and food) which it did not.
You need deep water port/s. Cranes and suitable road/railroad infrastructure for rapid unloading or loading. The US did not have the small boats/landing craft to support material/personnel transfer in rapid fashion at this point in time.