Carrier survival preserves people as well as flight decks

Keeping Courageous and Glorious afloat would preserve many experienced sailors and naval aviators who were lost with the ships. That larger professional pool could keep officers such as Lumley Lyster in carrier command longer and strengthen Fleet Air Arm advocacy inside the Royal Navy. A surviving carrier at either Taranto or Mers-el-Kébir could roughly double the available aviation strike, while retaining both ships would give Force H a three-carrier core with Ark Royal. Wartime pressure for more fighters might also prompt earlier American purchases when Hurricanes and Spitfires remained committed elsewhere. The Navy might still favor the Hellcat over the Brewster Buffalo, perhaps ordering folding wings early enough to suit British lifts. Courageous and Glorious could also undertake Atlantic operations, affect the mid-ocean air gap, and release armoured carriers for other duties. Their value lay in the experienced people they preserved and the extra missions a larger carrier force could sustain.