The fall of France opens the mid-Atlantic air gap

Early fleet-carrier submarine hunts exposed expensive ships to danger for uncertain returns, culminating in the loss of Courageous to U-29 after a torpedo had narrowly missed Ark Royal. France's collapse then gave U-boats Atlantic bases such as Lorient and allowed KG 40's Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors to find and bomb convoys beyond Coastal Command's reach. CAM ships offered a fighter response, but a launched Hurricane normally had to ditch if land was out of range. Churchill's autumn 1940 Battle of the Atlantic directive gave defeating the U-boats priority and placed Coastal Command under Admiralty operational control. Matthew Savery proposed fitting merchant ships with simple flight decks and arresting wires, while William Halsey anticipated similar US conversions for transport and training. Those measures turned a costly stopgap into an urgent requirement for recoverable air cover in the mid-Atlantic gap.