Japanese operational skill still depended on the extraordinary luck needed to find and sink Force Z at extreme range. British and American planners had studied Japan, but they lacked enough ready forces in the theater and still made damaging practical choices. The British formation did not zigzag partly because its crews had not practiced the maneuver enough to make collision risk acceptable, while the missing fighter cover came from an internal language failure. Royal Navy practice also accepted that urgent missions sometimes had to proceed without the desired air cover, as operations around Crete demonstrated. Training, force availability, communications, and operational risk explain more than the broad claim that Allied leaders merely underestimated Japan.
Notable Point · 51:41-57:04
Luck and readiness explain Force Z better than underestimation
The Japanese strike was skillful and fortunate, while British readiness and communications failures mattered more than a simple claim that Japan was underestimated.