Originally Posted by T. A. Gardner

This is a very interesting and potentially likely what if from the opening days of the Pacific War. What if instead of the Prince of Wales and Repulse being sent to attempt to intercept the Japanese landings in Malaysia they, along with their four escort destroyers are diverted to Java / the DEI to link up with the various naval forces already there.
The reasoning might be that without air cover the Malaysia operation was too risky and covering Australia and the DEI where there is a better chance of success due to other Allied naval forces in the area.
This would have given the ABDA fleet a battleship, a battlecruiser, 2 heavy cruisers, 5 or 6 light cruisers, and as many as 20 + destroyers. Against this the largest Japanese combatant in the area is a heavy cruiser. The Japanese also lack easy access to air power unlike they have in Malaysia and would have made it possible for the British capital ships to operate at sea without undue concern for being successfully attacked by aircraft.
Given the occasionally successful operations of the ABDA fleet it is entirely possible that this addition might have stopped one or more Japanese amphibious assaults through the annihiliation of the ships involved. In at least a couple of cases, ABDA ships...primarily destroyers... put severe hurt on Japanese landings. A thouough pasting of one or two by two battleships could have wiped out an entire transport group ending the landing and any possibility of immediate success.