As Britain withdrew forces from East Asia, a battleship and battlecruiser concentrated prestige and firepower in two ships. Japanese planners had more reason to fear cruisers that could disperse across trade routes and interfere with commerce. For a comparable commitment, perhaps six cruisers could have posed a more complicated strategic problem than the capital-ship pair. The force-structure counterfactual does not establish what a different campaign would have produced. The comparison matches ship type and distribution to an economic-warfare mission instead of judging a deployment by gun size alone.
Notable Point · 1:14:51-1:15:42
Why several cruisers could matter more than two capital ships
A dispersed cruiser force could threaten Japanese trade more widely than a concentrated battleship-and-battlecruiser deployment.