Roskill credits interwar fleets with improving night fighting after Jutland and investigating the use of carrier aircraft. The aircraft roles he lists include reconnaissance, gunfire spotting, slowing a retreating enemy and protecting the fleet against submarines. He nevertheless claims that exercises did not investigate cooperation between aircraft and flotilla vessels in defending merchant convoys. Clarke explicitly disputes that claim, saying that some exercises did include this requirement. The disagreement concerns the scope of preparation and the distinction between fleet aviation tasks and protection of merchant shipping.
Notable Point · 1:46:06-1:47:39
A disagreement over interwar preparation for convoy defence
Roskill's claim that convoy defence lacked combined aircraft and flotilla exercises receives an explicit challenge.