Why an early carrier strike on Wilhelmshaven still struggles

Without a major armored clash at Jutland, when could the Royal Navy have used carriers and torpedo aircraft against German ships in port?

Carrier-strike planning was already developing, but keeping an aerial torpedo from diving into a shallow harbour bottom remained a major obstacle. The later Taranto comparison illustrates the water-entry control required.

Avoiding the post-Jutland recovery burden or preserving work paused in 1915 might accelerate the carrier project. The limiting technology is torpedo water entry: a nose-heavy weapon dropped from an aircraft tends to dive deeply. Fins reduced that tendency, and the later British tension-wire arrangement is credited with the shallow entry used at Taranto. The exchange does not establish that all of those measures were available for the proposed early attack. Clarke's reading of harbour photographs suggests relaxed torpedo-net precautions at Wilhelmshaven, but those would matter only if the weapons could operate in its shallow water.