The force might have included Argus, Furious, Campania, Courageous, and Glorious, combining purpose-adapted aviation ships with large cruisers in transitional configurations. Beatty also proposed eight merchant conversions along Argus's lines to carry a force of roughly 120 Cuckoos. Such numbers show that the Royal Navy was already thinking in terms of massed carrier air power rather than isolated experimental sorties. The concept also demonstrates that emergency conversion of merchant hulls into aviation ships had First World War roots rather than originating with the Atlantic crisis of World War II.
Chapter · 36:17-38:27
The Royal Navy planned a hundred-aircraft carrier strike
Plans combined existing carriers, converted large cruisers, and potentially eight converted merchant ships to launch 100 or 120 Cuckoos.