Billy Mitchell's bombing demonstrations showed that aircraft could sink a ship, but the target was unmanned and the exercise rules were not followed. Those departures let later critics discount the result rather than treat it as a realistic operational trial. A dramatic demonstration proves less when its conditions remove the defences and constraints under debate. Taranto supplied the wartime conditions that the earlier exercise lacked.
Notable Point · 2:36:38-2:37:16
What Billy Mitchell's bombing tests could not prove
Bombing an unmanned ship outside realistic exercise rules demonstrated possibility without reproducing combat conditions.