Ark Royal and Glorious were initially sent toward Alexandria for Mediterranean exercises in spring 1940. The Norwegian campaign brought both carriers back north before Italy entered the war. Had Italy declared war while the pair were in the eastern Mediterranean, they might have launched roughly eighty-four Fairey Swordfish together against the Italian fleet at Taranto. The counterfactual shows how an operational redeployment could shift a large concentration of carrier striking power between theatres.
Notable Point · 38:08-39:50
Norway displaced an early two-carrier Taranto possibility
Orders for Norway pulled Ark Royal and Glorious away from the Mediterranean, where their combined Swordfish strength creates a revealing counterfactual about an earlier strike on Taranto.