Could Swordfish have attacked the anchorage at night?

Were the Japanese planning to use Swordfish for a night attack?

No. A hypothetical Swordfish strike might have complicated American radar-directed defenses, but its prospects would need modelling and it was not the Japanese plan.

American night air defense still depended heavily on radar-directed gunfire. A slow aircraft such as the Swordfish presented a different problem from the faster aircraft those defenses expected. A hypothetical force of 54 Swordfish is suggested as possibly more effective against the anchorage, with an explicit warning that the idea would need modelling. This was not the Japanese force, and the comparison does not imply that Britain would have chosen Swordfish for such an operation at that stage of the war.