The plan uses delay to change the size and meaning of the naval intervention. By January, the imagined concentration could include four battleships, one battlecruiser, an aircraft carrier, roughly a dozen cruisers, and fifteen destroyers. The additional battleship and carrier remain hopeful possibilities, so the exact order of battle is conditional. The fleet would arrive while Japanese troops were already stalled before fortified positions, making its gunfire and visible scale a psychological shock as well as a tactical threat. Its appearance could encourage the defenders and force Japanese commanders to report that Britain had committed a full fleet rather than an isolated squadron. The scenario depends on preserving the ships until this concentration becomes possible.
Notable Point · 24:25-26:07
Turn the delayed fleet arrival into an operational shock
Holding until January could let a much larger British fleet appear off the prepared line at once, changing both firepower and the campaign's psychological balance.