The British had a weakness: this was their first time using aircraft carriers, so they had no concept of carrier battles and no complete carrier tactics, while Shire had advanced knowledge of carrier combat.
"The British carriers have a single runway straight through the deck," Shire said, pointing to the British Army carrier model during a discussion of battle plans with Major General Pierre:
"This means they can't take off and land simultaneously."
"This means that when their planes enter the landing procedure, they can't launch fighters."
"If each carrier launches more than 12 fighters, a gap in air defense will occur."
Major General Pierre quickly understood the implication:
"Launching 12 planes takes more than an hour, and landing takes another hour."
"Their planes have a total airtime of only about two hours."
