The Royal Navy had exercised multiple carriers together since the 1920s and supplied the United States with a handbook drawn from that experience. Henderson later commanded Courageous, Glorious, and Furious as a carrier group, giving senior officers repeated practice in coordinated flying and fleet manoeuvre. Wartime losses removed Courageous and Glorious before Britain could concentrate that experience against a peer carrier force. Worldwide commitments then dispersed the surviving hulls, although Eagle and Illustrious still conducted two-carrier operations in the Mediterranean. The doctrinal capacity existed, while the available force structure did not.
Chapter · 28:48-32:45
British multi-carrier doctrine predated the Pacific War
Interwar exercises gave Britain procedures for operating several carriers, but early losses and worldwide commitments denied it the force concentration those procedures required.