Mediterranean battles are presented as a corrective to a view of Pacific naval battles as unrivalled in scale. Midway and the Coral Sea were large encounters when measured by the ships involved. Their air fighting is judged less exceptional once the quantities of land-based aircraft attacking the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean are included. The Philippine Sea is treated as a stronger candidate for a Pacific battle of exceptional scale. The comparison depends on whether the measure is participating warships or the weight of air attack.
Notable Point · 2:53:28-2:54:40
Comparing Mediterranean air attacks with Pacific battles
The scale of air attack in the Mediterranean complicates an assumption that the largest naval air battles all occurred in the Pacific.