The failures above HMS Glorious's captain

Glorious was an exceptional case rather than proof that the entire Royal Navy was hostile to aviation. Her captain failed to keep aircraft aloft, but a flag officer also allowed a capital asset to return from Norway with only two destroyers. The risk was already apparent after Courageous had been sunk during an anti-submarine patrol despite operating with a full destroyer flotilla. A cruiser-led group with several destroyers would have given Glorious a safer passage and an independent commander able to require air patrols. The counterfactual matters at both levels: an uninterrupted naval-aviator cohort could change the officer placed aboard and the admirals who approved carrier movements.