Jamie's Australian education emphasized the American naval battles that protected Australia, while popular books provided detailed accounts of Franklin, Bunker Hill, and other United States carriers. Brief references to Illustrious during Operation Excess suggested that a comparable British damage story existed but had not been told at the same depth. Further investigation uncovered Formidable during the Crete evacuation, the carrier fighter battle around Operation Pedestal, and the British Pacific Fleet. Norman Friedman's technical study explained design development but offered less of the operational and crew experience the researchers wanted. Gathering documents into a public site allowed readers to follow those cases and judge recurring armoured-carrier claims from the sources.
Notable Point · 1:28:00-1:33:11
Neglected British carrier cases drive new research
Brief references to Illustrious, Formidable, Pedestal, and the British Pacific Fleet exposed a major operational story missing from familiar Pacific carrier histories.