British air groups and the declining role of dive bombers

British, American, and Japanese carriers could each produce a strike of roughly twenty to thirty aircraft, even when their total air-group sizes differed. The fraction of the available aircraft committed and the mix of roles mattered. Britain's wartime path illustrates this distinction: it began with the Skua but found less need for dive bombers in the Mediterranean campaign. By its later Pacific operations, Avengers and heavily armed fighters occupied more of the air group. The account contrasts that outcome with British enthusiasm for dive bombing during the 1920s and 1930s.