Pinned post for Q&A :)

A large share of the content about the WW2 tends to revolve around the question "What will Nagumo do?"

I think you may have made a critical error in your assumption that Warspite would come out on the losing end of a tussle with the Kongos. Did you remember to take into consideration her plot armor?

My grandfather, Cyril "Charlie " Carr was on the Royal Sovereign at this time. He said he was very happy they didn't run into the Japanese, he knew they didn't stand a chance if things got serious. The R's needed a lot to bring them up to speed. As he put it they  "hid at the Andaman Islands " and then got out of the way of danger asap.
Grandad gave me a book he found on the attack on Sri Lanka (Ceylon)
"The most dangerous moment ".
A really informative book on the attack, I still have the copy he gave me 45 years ago.
As he handed the book to me he said "I'm in that!".
I could hear the price in his voice.
He's been gone 21 years this year.
Gee I miss him.

"Who the heck is going to come out standing at the end of that?" Why am I betting Warspite's rudder jams dodging a torpedo and leading to a lucky salvo that knocks out a Kongo....

What I’m really interested is in Somerville managing to get in that radar-equipped Swordfish night strike on the bulk of the Kido Butai, or Nagumo finding Addu Atoll right when the bulk of the Eastern Fleet is there…

For anyone who has the computer game "Carrier Battles 4 Guadalcanal", there is an Operation C scenario as a DLC for wargamers to try to see what happens in all of what's been discussed in this video. (NOTE: This is not intended as an endorsement or promotion of the game, but merely as an FYI for those who might be interested.)

Just think of the implications if Warspite caught Hiryu and Soryu; so many future battles (or battles that wouldn’t happen) would be impacted. Maybe Coral Sea doesn’t happen, and now the U.S. Navy has both Lexington, and a very undamaged Yorktown available. The Doolittle Raid would still go off, but would Yamamoto risk trying to ambush now four American fleet carriers with only four of his own? How would the IJN respond to the Guadalcanal invasion with potentially two American carriers at large (and maybe three if you count Wasp and Saratoga in the theater) assuming Fletcher has the same covering force? The ripple effects are mesmerizing.

This has always been one of the most interesting counter-factuals for me, especially as the very plausible scenario of losing at least one of Carrier Div 2s ships, if not both, would have huge impacts on the course of the Pacific war; whether the Japanese would even attempt the post-Doolittle raid operations in the Solomons & New Guinea, Midway and the Aleutians go up in the air, or if they do they would be very different.
It's an unfortunate artefact of history that the Indian Ocean raid is just a minor footnote in the 'Japanese wiping the floor with everyone December 1941-May 1942 Edition', when it potentially could have ended as a mini-midway.

Nagumo getting caught out by a need to swap munitions... where have I heard that before... 😊

😂 Almost a whole hour of "How many fleets can Warspite choke out in a single war and why no one was safe from the British"

Very informative. The actions that take place between the Royal Navy and IJN tend to get lost between Pearl Harbor and Coral Sea, and over shadowed by Midway.

If you ever find the time for an another alternative history, I think a great "what if" would be: what if Tirpitz had actually made a run for PQ-13 in Operation Rosselsprung and risked facing Duke of York and Washington.

FYI a full broadside from each of HMS Formidable and HMS Indomitable is 16x 4.5 tubes (all 8 twin mounts). The reason why they are in those slightly raised pillboxes is so they can fire over the deck ...

Even if Sommerville's force was destroyed, a significant loss of Carriers this early in the war could have massive implications for the rest of the war not to mention the loss of face that would be huge with the IJN and it's relative relations with the Japanese Army....

I like this Wednesday/Friday combo.  I could see it as an effective way to analyze the impact and importance of certain engagements or nonengagements.

One of the things you missed is that in April 1942 the capability of the long lance was totally unexpected.  In the Battle of the Java Sea, the Allies thought that there were Japanese submarines since they were obviously outside surface ship torpedo range.  This could allow the British to move to ranges where they thought they were outside torpedo range and be surprised.

While the idea of two pairs of opposing carriers getting into a gun duel is hilarious, that assumes that the British admiral was dumb enough to leave them without escorting destroyers.

One other interesting tidbit about the 2b and 2c scenarios. If Nagumo sends any or all of the Kongos to investigate/counterattack, the senior surface admiral and thus the commander of that engagement on the Japanese side would have been the commander of BatDiv 3 - VAdm Gunichi Mikawa, the historical victor of Savo Island. Obviously he would have been up against much tougher opposition in these hypotheticals, but we at least know that the Japanese surface forces would have been led by a skilled night surface commander in those cases.

Love this exploration of the hypotheticals. :)

The Political implications of Sommerville wiping out carrier division 2 would be incredible, there are major butterflies regarding the US Pacific fleet it's options and doctrine do they try to adopt night fighting etc. There are also major changes regarding Australia after the loss of Singapore the Aussies went super paranoid regarding the Japanese forces and many Aussie politicians pivoted towards the USA as they felt the UK couldn't protect them.  This still impacts Aussie politics today.  This would arguably be the first major victory over the Japanese by allied forces if carried out by the RN that massively boosts British prestige.  This would also have major implications regarding the BPF etc as this would be seen as a Midwayesqe scale victory and would predate it.

You seem to forget about Waspites invincible plot armour