Comments by "Steve Valley" (@stevevalley7835) on "The Loss of Force Z - Why send battleships against aircraft?" video.

  1.  @joelmontgomery4837  Of the three battlecruisers, Renown was the only one with a modern AA suite. Probably would have ended up the way Z historically did. As an exercise, I put together some timelines and found an alternate Force Z that would have been more capable against aircraft, and salve Somerville's bruised pride. Due to the shortage of battleships, Somerville was stuck with Malaya as his flagship, which he didn't like. So, instead of continuing around Africa, on it's way to the far east, PoW pulls in to Gibraltar to be Somerville's flagship. Historically, shortly after that time Force H and the force from Alexandria were both engaged in diversionary actions to distract from a British land offensive in Africa. Use those diversionary actions to cover the transfer of Malaya to Alexandria. At the same time, Revenge delivered a convoy to Aden, so then have Revenge steam up the canal to Alexandria. With Malaya and Revenge in place, QE and Valiant, both with modern AA, become Force Z and make for Singapore. Hermes finishes it's refit at Simonstown and makes for Singapore. A workshop in Singapore fabricates arresting hooks that are fitted to some of the RAF Buffalos based there. When QE, Valiant and Hermes meet up in Singapore, all but one or two of Hermes' Swordfishes are put ashore and as many Buffalos as possible put on board to provide a CAP. Some sources say there was consideration of Hermes joining PoW in South Africa, but not pursued as Hermes could not keep up with PoW, but the dozen or so Stringbags she normally carried would not have been useful as the battle occurred.
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  2.  @gregorywright4918  the RAF in Malaya had Buff B-339Es, with several items of UK equipment and a different Mod Cyclone engine, from the 339 C and D the Dutch flew. The question of structural strength is one I don't have an answer to. Depends on how Brewster designed them: with additional parts, beside the hook, that were deleted from the 339 variants, or making the existing structural parts stronger. If Brewster had two sets of structural parts, it's a sure bet the factory would have mixed them up and some USN pilots would see their tails break off on an arrested landing. I would expect the planes to be structurally identical, except for the hook not being bolted in, because that would be simplest for Brewster. Of course, the easy thing would have been to send a wire to Brewster at that time to confirm, but getting anything out of Brewster, parts or information, in a timely manner was difficult. Even if the RAF did get an answer, if it came from Brewster's export agents, a pair of brothers by the name of Miranda. I wouldn't trust it. Before being hired by Brewster, the Mirandas had done time in Federal prison for violating a US arms embargo. After the USN took over the Brewster factory in PA, the government sued the Mirandas and Brewster principle Jimmy Work for $3.2M for fraud. I wonder if the Aussies knew up front that the shiny new Buffs they bought were going to have engines that had been discarded by US airlines and "refrubished" by Wright, instead of new engines?
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  3.  @nowthenzen  the Skua was agonizingly slow, according to Wiki. The G3M and G4M were both faster. That's why my alternate scenario, that has Hermes joining Z, uses Brewster Buffalos from the RAF squadrons already in Singapore. The Buff can top 300, 40mph faster than a Fulmar, so has enough speed advantage to be an effective interceptor.
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