Exercise pilots tended to dive on carriers, capital ships and valuable merchantmen. A pilot under live fire had a different incentive and could choose to attack the destroyer instead. Admiral Reginald Henderson challenged the assumption that aircraft would routinely pass over the screen. By the time the case for stronger destroyer air defence gained traction, rearmament and the breakdown of the treaty system were already pressing on shipbuilding.
Notable Point · 7:22-9:29
How air exercises understated the threat to destroyers
Pilots' choice of targets in peacetime exercises gave navies a misleading picture of which ships would be attacked in war.