Fleet-train ambitions versus merchant-shipping demands

The mature American Pacific fleet train should not be projected backward into 1939. Some later American practices followed methods the Royal Navy was already planning, but Britain faced a severe allocation problem. Merchant hulls that could form an emergency naval supply chain were also needed to sustain the national economy and armed forces. Dedicated forward support was therefore harder to create than the plan suggested. Afloat oilers still proved indispensable to Henry Harwood's South Atlantic operations far from a major base.