American Pacific operations favoured large daylight strikes and the ability to find and attack enemy forces at range. British methods were shaped by the Mediterranean, North Atlantic, and Indian Ocean, where night attacks and a different sequence of operations could make more sense. Neither system was universally superior outside the theatre that shaped it. The British would have had to adapt before fighting repeated daylight carrier battles in the Pacific, while the American method would face particular difficulty in the confined Mediterranean. Operation C illustrates the stakes because a successful British night strike during the Indian Ocean raid could have cost Japan carriers and changed later operations across the war.
Notable Point · 2:57:16-2:59:34
Why British and American carrier doctrines diverged
British and American carrier systems were responses to different theatres, not simple evidence that one navy understood naval aviation and the other did not.