Why a 9.2-inch torpedo cruiser would dominate night actions

In which Royal Navy night attacks would a Baltimore-sized 9.2-inch cruiser with eight broadside torpedoes be lethal?

Essentially all of them; its guns and torpedoes would overwhelm the armor carried by likely German and Italian opponents.

A 9.2-inch battery combines a much heavier shell with a useful cruiser rate of fire, while eight torpedoes on a broadside add a second powerful close-range threat. Lightly armored Italian and German opponents would struggle to absorb either weapon during a confused night action. The combination is dangerous across the Royal Navy's wartime night battles rather than in one specially favorable encounter. The joking suggestion that such a cruiser might finish Scharnhorst before Duke of York arrived conveys how decisively it would overmatch ordinary cruisers.