Alex offers a flight deck and hangar above a tanker as a counterfactual way to add convoy air cover while retaining some fuel capacity. He suggests Dale-class fleet oilers, drawing an analogy with tanker conversions to landing ships with gantries that could still carry fuel. Fighters could challenge enemy reconnaissance, while patrol aircraft searched for U-boats around the convoy. The proposal draws on British airborne anti-submarine experience dating back to the First World War's Spider's Web patrols. Its case rests on whether the protection offered to other ships would outweigh the converted tanker's reduced cargo usefulness.
Notable Point · 1:24:21-1:26:21
Dale-class fleet oilers and an escort-carrier compromise
A counterfactual Dale-class conversion tests whether Britain could add an escort-carrier deck while retaining part of a fleet oiler's refuelling role.