Force V's costly flying operations at Salerno

Five carriers were controlled successfully from a cruiser flagship and kept sending eighty-minute patrols over the beachhead while the advance stalled. Only ten aircraft were lost to enemy action, but forty were damaged in deck landings; crews even shortened Seafire propellers to reduce nose-over damage before shifting surviving aircraft ashore. Calm weather and a maximum carrier speed of about seventeen knots produced too little wind over the short decks for forgiving recoveries. The episode demonstrates that flight-deck geometry and aircraft robustness could consume an air group faster than combat.