https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekTTnSJVqCU

not a fan of cartoonish productions like that.

And it was not a fleet the IJN destroyed it was a Task Force.

ABDAFLOAT was one of the dumbest decisions made early in the war.  Strictly political, and another one of Churchill's mistakes that FDR unfortunately went along with.

The ships lost could have been very valuable elsewhere later in that year; here they were destroyed and caused virtually no damage to the enemy fleet at all.

True, it was a  needless  battle.

Allied leadership stank to high heaven from December 1941 to Mid 1942.  Political and military.

Over the years Percival was blamed for Singapore and while he was certainly part of it he was by far not the only culprit.

The military and political rot in Malaysia and India was astounding.

The US had its own; MacArthur's massive screw ups on the Philippines by not preparing Bataan along with his over estimation of what his forces could do made a huge difference. If things had been done right (Wainwright in charge the whole time)  the Philippines could have held out till fall; and the guerilla operations would have been greatly accelerated.  Wainwright told the massive Ego all of this before January and was ignored.

Behind a lot of this was the early refusal by all too many to give the IJN its due; partly racist no doubt but partly our belief in our own superiority.     

The  Japanese army did amazing things in the early  war. They didnt  have the resources for  a  long war. Another mistake was cancelling the relief force to Wake  island.

Quote from: ldub23 on March 08, 2021, 09:25:14 AM
The  Japanese army did amazing things in the early  war. They didnt  have the resources for  a  long war. Another mistake was cancelling the relief force to Wake  island.

Actually that was a good thing. Our carriers at that time were terrible in both tactics and aircraft.  And the IJN Naval aviators were the absolute best in the world.  We would have lost all three carriers and that would have allowed Japan a full 6 months at least to do whatever they wanted- would have forced us to completely abandon helping out Australia.  All our efforts would have had to concentrate on holding Hawaii. No raids or anything close to the Doolittle attack. We would have been left with only One carrier on its way to the West Coast and then have to get the Wasp there as well.   The Hornet was not ready for action until April.  And we would have gotten no more carriers until spring of 1943.