Improved command would not prevent all battlecruiser losses during the run to the north. Indefatigable and Queen Mary could still be hit hard, but several months of tighter ammunition discipline make the historical scale of flash-driven destruction less likely unless a magazine is struck directly. The argument focuses on closing shell and magazine doors and preventing loose propellant from turning a turret hit into a path of fire toward the magazines. Keeping the Fifth Battle Squadron close also spreads German attention and firepower more widely instead of allowing the German ships to concentrate as effectively on individual battlecruisers. Smoke, sudden visibility, and chance still matter, so the counterfactual changes the likely damage mechanism rather than making the ships invulnerable.
Chapter · 56:06-58:40
Magazine discipline and battlecruiser survival
Several months of stricter ammunition handling could leave Indefatigable and Queen Mary badly damaged without reproducing their historical flash-driven destruction.