The sloops and K-class destroyers tied to the Red Sea might otherwise have escorted HMS Courageous during early anti-submarine operations. The Royal Navy understood that carriers could help hunt submarines and employed both Courageous and Ark Royal in that role. Its shortage of smaller carriers forced valuable fleet carriers into work for which they were not the ideal platform. The counterfactual remains uncertain, but it shows how a distant Italian threat could influence British carrier risk and escort allocation elsewhere.
Notable Point · 55:56-57:49
Released escorts could have supported carrier anti-submarine patrols
The Red Sea commitment may have withheld specialist sloops and K-class destroyers from early-war carrier hunting groups such as HMS Courageous's patrol.