The counterfactual turns on the cumulative effect of carrier availability. More aircraft, stores, fighters, and strike waves could have put far greater pressure on Italian capital ships and altered the wider Mediterranean balance. A surviving Courageous or Glorious might also have released another carrier for Force H, the Home Fleet, or Force Z. Individual carrier losses therefore created a chain of later operational shortages that extended well beyond Taranto.
Notable Point · 40:34-43:20
How extra British carriers change the Mediterranean
Additional operational carriers could have compounded British striking power at Taranto, Mers-el-Kébir, and later fleet actions.