If we agree that any carrier would have been the primary target, and POW still disabled early on, then only Repulse might escape. Obviously. this illustrates the problem with the counterfactual: would POW been disabled in the same way with a carrier present? Unanswerable.
My intention was really to point out how poorly equipped the FAA were in December 1941 and debunk the assumption that the inclusion of a carrier with Force Z would have avoided the disaster. Ark Royal, for example, had no radar and hence no fighter direction capability for its Fulmars. Indomitable would clearly have been the best option, as it had fighter direction capability and embarked Sea Hurricanes, but with a significant risk of making the disaster worse if the carrier was lost.
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