How British carriers operated in wartime

What pattern best describes Royal Navy carrier operations during the Second World War?

Losses forced improvisation, with surviving carriers providing mobile air cover, reconnaissance denial, interception, and strikes wherever the fleet most needed them.

American paired carriers could remain over the horizon from one another so that sighting one would not immediately reveal both. The British plan placed carriers inside a task force protected by rebuilt Queen Elizabeth-class battleships and Renown. The loss of Courageous, Glorious, and Ark Royal broke up those balanced groups, forcing surviving ships into whichever theatre needed them most. Protecting Russian convoys could mean denying enemy reconnaissance before disrupting incoming attacks and exploiting strike opportunities. At Tripoli, Formidable covered the battleships' bombardment and supplied flares. Near Crete, her depleted air group exposed the danger of operating without a reserve deck. Wartime losses forced surviving carriers to combine roles that pre-war plans had assigned to different types.