Why would the RAF withhold reconnaissance photographs from the Royal Navy when both services were fighting the same enemy?
Short answerInterwar bomber-versus-battleship arguments and resentment over the Fleet Air Arm had hardened into senior-level rivalry that could override practical cooperation.
NotesInterwar claims that bombers could replace battleships and much of the fleet made control of naval aviation an institutional contest. The return of the Fleet Air Arm to the Royal Navy added to that dispute. Senior staff shaped by those arguments could obstruct cooperation without sharing the attitudes of personnel running squadrons and flying aircraft. Lister could commission reconnaissance flights yet still be denied direct access to their photographs. Junior RAF personnel might have tolerated Pollock's copying, but their possible cooperation is explicitly speculation.