The counterfactual separates losses that the new gun could not affect from Afridi and Gurkha, which were sunk by air attack. Gurkha historically left her task group to obtain a firing angle and became the attackers' focus; an 80-degree battery could let her remain within a mutually supporting screen. Six Tribals could keep as many as 48 guns engaged through a much steeper arc, also improving defence of merchant ships and convoys. Even a few extra German aircraft losses might matter because pilots trained in Norway carried anti-shipping experience into the Mediterranean, although the later outcome remains too uncertain to specify.
Chapter · 1:30:33-1:38:50
Norway: mutual support and pilot attrition
In Norway, high-angle destroyer batteries could keep Gurkha inside her formation, strengthen mutual support, protect transports, and impose greater losses on experienced German aircrews.