Building the ships as carriers avoids Furious's repeated conversion penalties and allows long flight decks and larger hangars. The torpedo bombers need the deck itself as a runway, so deck length shapes the proposed arrangement. Each carrier could accommodate 48 Cuckoos and 12 two-seat guide aircraft. This gives two proposed waves, each with 72 torpedo bombers and 18 guides. Splitting the attack reduces the danger of aircraft obstructing one another in the same airspace. The second wave can identify ships already damaged and concentrate on them. A flooded ship sitting deeper in the water could also intercept a torpedo that would previously have run beneath it.
Chapter · 1:25:28-1:36:17
Purpose-built carriers enable a two-wave attack
Three purpose-built carriers could carry 144 Cuckoos plus guide aircraft, divide the raid into two waves, and concentrate the second wave on damaged ships.