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Certainly. The IJN would have shot down a lot of Fleet Air Arm aircraft, and sunk three British ships. the Mitsubishi Zero was capable of out-maneuvering anything in the sky in 1942, and the Achii type 99 "Val" dive bomber was the equivilant of any western naval dive-bombing platform of the time. England would've had the additional loss of a good Aircraft Carrier, and the attendant aircraft.
I don't think there were any Zeros involved in the action against Force Z.
DakFire666:
You are correct, Kiddo Butai was attacking Sri Lanka at that time. The English Seafires would have had a hard fight, just twelve of them against two IJN Naval Attack Regiments, nearly 80 aircraft. but a draw with severe losses on both sides at the time.
Japanese Naval Air Force consisted of Nell and Betty torpedoes bombers. The lack of a good air defense (fighters) was the main reason of this disaster. Also the British CO lacked knowleged about the Japanese aircraft capabilities. If the HMS INDOMITABLE had the air control/radar system used by her sister ship on Taranto, it might be possible there would have been a different result of this battle, though the Japanese attack force was very strong amounting to air groups. By the way, Force Z had escaped unscathed a torpedo attack by a jap sub the night before, through a mechanical problem in the sub that delayed the launching.
I thought these were involved with the attempt to sink the Bismark.