The Royal Navy did not expect to fight only across the central Pacific spaces that shaped American and Japanese carrier doctrine. It had to plan for a Mediterranean confrontation with Italy and routes through the South and East China Seas toward Japan, while Soviet pressure toward India or northern Europe posed a different set of problems. Fleet carriers appeared ill-suited to the confined Baltic, although seaplane carriers could still support operations there. These widely separated theaters made global coverage as important as the size of a single air group. Together with night operations, that geography strengthened the case for several carriers whose air groups could combine when Britain needed a mass strike.
Notable Point · 59:20-1:01:12
Geography made a multi-carrier fleet attractive to Britain
Mediterranean, East Asian, and Soviet contingencies rewarded dispersed British aviation forces rather than a few carriers optimized only for a Pacific alpha strike.