The bombers that attacked Force Z belonged to the Imperial Japanese Navy, which operated its own land-based air force. Their long-range role can lead to confusion with Japanese Army aviation, but land basing did not determine which service owned them. The total given is 88 aircraft: 34 carrying torpedoes, 51 configured as level bombers and three scouts. Four torpedo aircraft are described here as destroyed and 28 as damaged, with many subsequently written off. The argument is that the attackers had sacrificed defensive armament for fuel, leaving them vulnerable to even a small fighter intervention. In this interpretation, Japanese skill achieved a major success under narrow operational conditions and at substantial cost to the torpedo force.
Notable Point · 1:00:46-1:05:10
The land-based naval bombers that attacked Force Z
The strike's composition and reported losses explain why fighter opposition could have mattered even against a successful Japanese attack.