Getting through fighter escorts to disrupt a naval strike

What happens if the attacking bombers arrive with an escort as large as the carrier's patrol?

The proposed response is to force through the escort and break up the strike so the fleet's successive layers of anti-aircraft fire face smaller attacks.

An escort of capable single-engine fighters raises a serious objection to relying on heavier general-purpose twins for defense. Alex Clarke argues that a larger patrol could force its way through the escort and break up the strike, citing the Fulmar as a comparison. The objective is to divide a coordinated attacking formation into smaller groups before it reaches the ships. Heavy anti-aircraft fire would disrupt those groups further, medium weapons would interfere with their attacks, and light weapons would engage aircraft at close range. A maneuvering warship presents a smaller target than a city and can combine that movement with its own gunfire. The argument depends on disrupting the attack sufficiently to keep it from overwhelming the ship's defenses.