Radar reconnaissance let Somerville track an enemy that could not find him

The Japanese failed to locate Somerville even when the fleets passed relatively close to one another. British carrier aircraft usually kept track of the Japanese formations with air-to-surface radar. That asymmetry gave Somerville information and opportunities that simple comparisons of ship numbers miss. Japanese aircraft destroyed Dorsetshire and Cornwall immediately instead of shadowing them toward a rendezvous that might have revealed the British fleet. The missed opportunity exposes both Japanese uncertainty and Somerville's failure to exploit his informational advantage fully.