In 1941, carriers offered reconnaissance and long-range striking power, but their aircraft did not yet guarantee the destruction of a capital ship. Battleships remained the dependable heavy killing component, leading planners toward mixed carrier-battleship task forces rather than an immediate substitution of one type for the other. Pre-war Royal Navy doctrine had developed these mixed formations well before combat forced the issue. Admiral Henderson's support for carriers coexisted with his insistence that battleships needed heavy guns.
Notable Point · 1:20:20-1:23:20
Why battleships still mattered beside carriers in 1941
The discussion corrects a hindsight view that navies had already discarded battleships once carrier aviation appeared.