Norway in 1940 brought concerted air attacks against Royal Navy formations. Earlier incidents during the Spanish Civil War and in the Far East were too isolated to provide comparable evidence about sustained fleet defence. Even wartime experience needs attention to the balance of ships and threats involved. A fleet fights with the ships available, so its actual composition can differ substantially from the balanced force envisaged in planning.
Notable Point · 1:17:54-1:20:06
Why Norway provided a different test of naval air defence
Concerted attacks in Norway tested fleet air defence on a scale that isolated earlier encounters could not reproduce.