The strike force would return at extreme fuel limits and need time to land, recover crews, rearm, and refuel. Fuel-starved landings threatened more Japanese aircraft than British defensive action. By the following day Force Z would be farther away, the fighter-cover misunderstanding would be under correction, and the local force balance would already be changing. Survival therefore buys an operational recovery window rather than merely postponing an identical attack for twenty-four hours.
Notable Point · 10:30-12:01
Why Japan cannot simply try again the next day
Fuel exhaustion, landing losses, rearming, and changing Allied defenses deny the bombers an immediate repeat.