Repulse POW and What If

I dont think the Admiralty would have committed POW and R to ABDA. There was talk about sending them to Pearl Harbor but the most likely place for them to go if they survived the fall of Singapore was back to the Indian Ocean.

Another interesting what if. How would events have gone had the light cruisers HMS Danae, Dragon, Mauritius, and destroyers Encounter and Jupiter been fully repaired on December 8th instead of being under repair at Singapore. The addition of these ships would certainly had made Force Z a bit more powerful, though still good targets for aircraft. Add to that, had the British seen the Japanese flare dropped over the Chokai on the stormy night of December 9 while the Japanese fleet and British were between 5 and 25 miles apart, it might have been interesting if the two forces had met, especially with the British force augmented by the old light cruisers. I am not entirely sure what the Japanese had here but since the float plane was from the float plane that dropped the flare on Chokai was from the light cruiser Kinu. There was also the light cruiser Yuru, and the heavy cruisers Suzuya and Kumano. One more CA I think. One of the more interesting and detailed account of Force Z's demise is in RISING SUN FALLING SKIES by Jeffrey R. Cox. Four US Edsall type destroyers were also supposed to join Force Z but they were too distant when the British sailed. Things were happening too quickly and Admiral Philips didn't believe there was time to wait for other ships.

No, the D class was not reconfigured as AA cruisers and their presence would only have offered the Japanese more targets on December 10th. However, they certainly could have added to a sea battle the night of December 9th more interesting. If you are putting together a War at Sea scenario, the D class cruiser is actually a fairly good unit using the Dunedin SAs, especially if there is more then one of them. Reading Cox's book, you can also see the British were also getting some bad breaks and the Japanese pilots some lucky ones that did not have to happen. Maybe a few other targets around could have altered the chances of getting those lucky shots.

I believe that there were two Kongo-class battle-cruisers with the Japanese forces.