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Hello Glider
you are right IIRC corectly 5 high level bombers were damaged of which 2 turned immediately to home. But the bombers made one hit on Repulse and IIRC also one on PoW.
Hello Freebird
Phillips could have asked a sqn of fighters, they were available, for protection but never called them, after PoW was hit Tennant, CO of Repulse, send the message for fighters but they arrived too late. If Phillips had been clever he would have call help at least when the level bombers were noticed if the snoopers around didn't bother him. Brewsters would have had some effects on Bettys and Nells.
On Counties, IMHO no cruisers at the time without fighter cover would have had much chance against mass attack of IJN Vals.
Juha
As far as Heavy Cruisers go, the Alaska would come out on top.
Thats classified as a battle cruiser.
Actually the Alaskas are described in Conways as "Heavy Cruisers free from all treaty restrictions"
They make an intersting comparison to the japanese B-65s and the German "P" Classes, possibly also the Soviet Kronstadt Class
Hello Freebird
the first attack was by level bombers, the disabilating torpedo attack happened after it. IMHO at least when they got the visual sighting of level bombers it was time to Phillips to ask fighter support. Less indoctranated officer would have asked air cover, 4 fighters in time, after the snoopers were seen.
I was not blaming Tennant at all, he did very good job.
"some effect" was an understatement. And we don't know how it would have gone if Brewsters would have arrived in time, I'm pretty sure that they could have prevented at least some torpedo hits.
Juha
.....If you consider Salvo Island and other actions (Salvo being the one that is a definite that Cruiser torpedoes did the job), ....
The problem with the US 20mm and 40mm BOFORS was the shell. It contained to little high explosive to guarantee a kill (only 65gramms in case of the 40mm). In comparison to this even the poor 37mm FLAK AAT rounds used on german ships were as deadly as a US 3"/50 AAA round (both at ca. 250 to 350 gramms of high explosive depending on fuze mechanism).
Whoops, my bad. That's what you get for not proof reading!
Considering your POV, it's a fair point. In the early part of the war, up to about 1943, before US Airpower got it's act together, the torpedoes on Japanese Cruisers paid for themselves. Thereafter, not so. Replacing them with AAA would've been a good idea.
By the time you get around to Leyte Gulf, the Long Lance was over as a weapon's system that made a difference.
However, one point about AAA vs Torps, the AAA is a defensive weapon and the Torp is an offensive weapon. With the AAA, it's a matter of time (as the kamikazes showed) before you get hit. Even the best of them gets it sooner or later.
I would consider the increasing effectiveness of the allied radar as starting to neutralize the torpedo effectiveness.
But the USN were slow learners regarding the IJN torpedo effectiveness (and night fighting doctrine) thus the Japanese get credit for their cruiser capabilities.
The shift to thin walled but high capacity rounds gave the KM AAA some good damage infliction potential.