British procurement logic treated carriers as counters to enemy carriers as well as tools for other missions. A single-source account says Churchill accepted a pause because German carrier completion still appeared years away. If Graf Zeppelin had instead been operational in 1939, that reasoning probably would have changed and construction would have continued. By 1941 the Royal Navy might therefore have possessed at least one additional armoured carrier for North Atlantic task groups.
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How Graf Zeppelin could keep British carriers building
An operational German carrier in 1939 could have prevented Britain’s carrier-construction pause and placed another armoured carrier in service by 1941.