Why First World War air attacks offered limited fleet-defence lessons

Did fixed-wing attacks on major warships in the First World War provide useful air-defence lessons for the Second?

Only to a limited extent, because attacks by one or two aircraft offered little preparation for the massed formations encountered later.

Non-Zeppelin fixed-wing attacks on major ships did occur during the First World War, but not in large numbers. Most involved one or two aircraft rather than coordinated formations. That experience could not reproduce the tactical and fire-control problem posed by thirty or forty attackers arriving together. The scarcity and scale of the earlier attacks help explain why interwar exercises left important fleet air-defence questions unresolved.