ORIGINAL: Coulsdon Eagle
Interesting to note that no-one is a proponent of the Indian Ocean strike as it occurred in 1942. With the Royal Navy tied down in the Med, Atlantic & Arctic that's not really surprising. It would take quite some work to build up the Indian Ocean Fleet into a strike force capable of threatening Singapore & the DEI. Could the Japanese have found a better use of KB?
Honestly, thru early '42 I think its hard to justify keeping the KB massed together. There is really nothing you need to use THAT much firepower against. And once you show where they all are, you free up the allies to use their carriers more aggressively in other areas.
The British are as good a target as any, but I think likely payoff is too small to justify sending the carriers that far out.
The Americans are the real threat. Anything you can do to lure them into an early carrier battle is worth a reasonable amount of risk. In the early part of the war I think you want to have your carriers running all over the place. Put in an appearance, provide support for a few days, then pull back to rearm and head somewhere else to do the same. Most of the time you keep them out of sight somewhere between Cam Rahn Bay, Truk and the Home Islands. The fear of them suddenly appearing will keep the allies honest with their carriers early war.
