An Iceland-based carrier against Fw 200 Condors

The Atlantic option gives Courageous a role distinct from Mediterranean strike operations. Operating from Iceland would place her fighters across the mid-ocean gap, where they could attack German reconnaissance aircraft whose reports helped concentrate submarines against convoys. Enigma-derived positioning information would guide those interceptions. Older battlecruisers or battleships could protect the carrier group once the German surface threat had been reduced. The payoff is indirect but important: denying the enemy reconnaissance can reduce attacks without requiring the carrier to hunt every U-boat itself.