Q&A ยท 15:58-16:37

What a mass Barracuda strike might do to Japanese capital ships

The hypothetical carrier strike would probably sink or disable its principal Japanese targets; destroyer losses depend on the surrounding action.

Question

What could this hypothetical Seafire and Barracuda strike achieve against the Japanese capital ships and their escorts?

Short answer

It would probably sink or disable Yamato, Nagato, Mutsu, and one cruiser. The fate of the eleven destroyers would depend on the surrounding action.

Notes

The hypothetical force has 134 Seafires, 87 Barracudas carrying 500-pound bombs, and 177 Barracudas armed with Mark XII torpedoes. The strike would probably sink Yamato, Nagato, Mutsu, and one cruiser, or damage the major targets enough to send them home. The fate of the eleven destroyers is less certain because it would depend on what else was happening around the action. This is explicitly a counterfactual force assessment, with likely results for the principal targets and more conditional losses among their escorts.