The intended formation resembled Force H: a battleship or battlecruiser, carrier, cruiser, and destroyer screen. A Warspite and Glorious group would have presented Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with a very different problem off Norway. The doctrine was more coherent than the improvised 1940 employment of carriers, where command shortages and unsuitable admirals helped produce avoidable risk. The Norwegian case shows the gap that can open between well-developed fleet exercises and the forces actually assembled in wartime.
Chapter · 27:42-29:58
The balanced prewar carrier battle group
Prewar doctrine paired a carrier with a gun capital ship, cruiser, and destroyers rather than sending it on exposed anti-submarine sweeps.