By January 1941, the scenario assumes that at least two of the three 11-inch ships have been lost in the Norwegian fighting. The number of Allied carriers permits continuous combat-air patrols and repeated strikes rather than a single all-or-nothing attack. British flight decks are organised for sustained operations, but they can still assemble a massed strike when the situation demands it. Aircraft do not have to sink a German capital ship; damage that slows the formation lets more strikes and surface forces catch it. The result leaves the surviving 15-inch ships and carrier with a much smaller raiding group for an Operation Berlin analogue.
Notable Point · 1:36:58-1:39:04
Continuous carrier strikes reduce the German raiding force
Repeated British deck cycles need only damage or slow German ships for the following capital-ship force to destroy them before an Operation Berlin sortie.