A photograph centered on capital ships leaves their protective screen outside the frame. The formation is recalled as having roughly fourteen or fifteen destroyers, along with additional escorts that may have been frigates or sloops. That density of anti-submarine vessels would make raising a periscope exceptionally dangerous. A prudent submarine commander would try to avoid the group rather than attack its most visible ships. Both the escort count and the identification of the smaller types are explicitly approximate recollections.
Notable Point · 22:32-23:35
The capital ships had an unseen escort screen
The famous ships in the photograph were protected by a much larger, partly unseen screen of destroyers and other anti-submarine escorts.