Tom Phillips, doctrine, and layered fleet air defense

Admiral Tom Spencer Vaughan Phillips had commanded destroyers and cruisers and debated naval aviation with Reginald Henderson, so the familiar caricature of him as a battleship officer ignorant of aviation is inaccurate. Layered defense began with fighters breaking bomber formations into smaller groups, followed by heavy anti-aircraft fire and then medium and light weapons. Under the stress of fighter attack and heavy fire, some crews might release their weapons early and withdraw before completing an attack. Without fighters, doctrine asked heavy guns to assume the first layer and favored a steady firing platform, whereas Repulse's aggressive maneuvering proved more effective in the historical attack. Phillips's early-war Admiralty work denied him the recent combat experience that might have challenged his adherence to those assumptions.