Taranto damaged three of Italy's six battleships, affecting half the battle line in one operation. The scale of the target fleet determined whether a raid served mainly as provocation or threatened to cripple available capital-ship strength. The larger American or Japanese fleets could absorb a strike of this size more readily than the smaller Italian, French, or German battle fleets. Germany then had the two Scharnhorst-class ships and the newly commissioned Bismarck, whose formal commissioning did not yet guarantee full operational readiness. Damage to three German battleships would have left essentially no battle line available. Ark Royal could in principle have launched a strike roughly twice as strong as the one Illustrious delivered at Taranto, so carrier capacity and target-fleet size together determined the possible strategic effect.
Notable Point · 23:25-25:09
Taranto and the fleet-size calculation
Damage to three of Italy's six battleships at Taranto shows why a carrier strike could have a disproportionate effect against a relatively small battle line.