Operation Judgment's damage and naval significance

Cunningham's summation emphasizes both the operational planning and the crews' execution under anti-aircraft fire. Three Italian battleships were badly damaged, with two beached and a third sunk by the bows, while bombing also appeared to damage two cruisers. The loss of two aircraft and four men remained part of the cost. Cunningham stressed that twenty aircraft, in about six and a half hours of carrier-to-carrier flying, inflicted more damage than the German High Seas Fleet suffered in the daylight action at Jutland. For him, the raid established naval aviation as the fleet's most devastating weapon and showed how a small carrier force could impose outsized damage on a battle fleet.