At this distance, over 70 years ago, numbers are now merely numbers, but one has to feel sympathy for the poor buggers who died so horribly. I don't know the worst losses that the Royal Navy ever suffered but, not long after Pearl Harbour, the Japs sank both the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off the coast of Malaya - they were trying to stop the Jap invasion, but had no aircraft-carrier escort and were therefore hopelessly vulnerable to air attack. I suppose it likely that well over 3,000 men were lost when they went down.
On a different subject, Jack, referring back to your remarks on the colour of fish, we used to get dolphin-fish in Oman. We could catch them using light spinning rods and whenever there was any floating debris there would be "falusi" as they were known, lurking beneath. They were spectacular fighters on light tackle and their colours were brilliant - though these faded rapidly when landed. Good eating, too! I've also caught sailfish off Oman and off the Kenyan coast - wonderful colours while still in the sea, but fading similarly once caught.
Tony.
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