Dark Earth: The History of the Aircraft Carrier

Because the Pacific is more sea while the North Sea and Norwegian and Mediterranean Sea are closer to land.

I also aumse that US naval carrier groups are a lot bigger than OTL as there are a lot more carriers in the Darkearth verse than they where in OTL World War II.

Another snippet, this time looking at Operation Judgment:

The end of the immediate threat of invasion allowed the redeployment of troops from Britain to North Africa in one of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill's more daring calculations, along with the much quieter dispatch of elements of the Royal Navy to the Atlantic and Mediterranean for what was to be the British Empire and Commonwealth's most effective counterattack in the disastrous year of 1940 - the combined offensives on land, sea and air in the Mediterranean. The Italian navy at Taranto stood astride the Imperial lifeline to Suez and presented the most serious threat to Malta and the parlous Allied position in North Africa, based as it was on the broken-backed French in the west and greatly outnumbered British Desert Army in Egypt to the east. Over 320,000 Italian troops had invaded Egypt on September 13th, but had made comparatively light advances against the 64,000 strong Imperial forces, made up of the 7th Armoured Division, the Indian 4th Infantry Division, the Australian 6th Infantry Division, the New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division and the South African 1st Infantry Division. The supply situation for General Wavell's troops was fundamentally limited by the threats to the Mediterranean sea route presented by the main battle force of the Regia Marina at Taranto, where 9 capital ships, 3 aircraft carriers, 25 cruisers, 42 destroyers and 26 submarines were poised like a sword of Damocles over Malta and the passage to Egypt.

Plans for an aircraft carrier strike upon Taranto had been prepared and refined since 1935 and were now put into place as part of a much broader offensive operation in the Mediterranean, involving separate heavily escorted convoys to Malta from Gibraltar and Alexandria, the reinforcement of Commonwealth forces deploying in Greece and a diversionary airstrike on Cagliari in Sardinia by a task force of HMS Argus and HMS Furious. It would occur on Trafalgar Day, October 21st 1940. Taranto was heavily defended in a conventional sense, with 227 anti-aircraft guns and 332 machine guns providing a strong coverage, although their barrage balloons had been blown away in an arcane storm two days before the raid. Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, had taken the main battle fleet out to escort the troop convoy to Crete, whilst a fast carrier task force of Illustrious, Invincible, Ark Royal, Eagle and Victorious provided air cover. The combined convoy operations had succeeded in lulling the Italians into a false sense of normality and the lack of Italian RDF left them open to an aerial surprise attack at night. The carrier force under Admiral Lyster, escorted by the battleships South Africa, King George V, Prince of Wales, Lion and Temeraire, the super battlecruiser Hood, 12 cruisers and 20 destroyers, broke away from the remainder of the fleet in the early afternoon and slipped westward under cover of experimental cloaking enchantments to reach their launching point in the Ionian Sea, some 240 miles away from Taranto, by 2200 hours that evening. Now was the time for the Empire to strike back.

64 Fairey Swordfish torpedo bombers (40 with torpedoes and 24 with bombs and flares) and 60 Blackburn Buccaneer dive bombers attacked the harbour in two waves, with the first hitting at 2258. Several large oil tanks were set ablaze, followed by numerous explosions as shore facilities were hit by 1000lb bombs. The battleships Leonardo da Vinci and Caio Dulio were hit by 3 and 2 torpedoes respectively and began to sink, with Giulio Cesare being struck by 4 torpedoes and 3 1000lb bombs and capsizing and Conte di Cavour hit by 4 1000lb bombs and 2 torpedoes, suffering a devastating magazine explosion. Enrico Dandolo was hit by 3 bombs and set afire, whilst her sister carrier Lorenzo de' Medici was put in a sinking state by a pair of torpedoes. The heavy cruiser Verona was hit by two torpedoes and 4 1000lb bombs and suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion which crippled two nearby destroyers, with Napoli, Turin and Gorizia were struck by torpedoes and bombs and began sinking. 6 Buccaneers and 5 Swordfish were lost in the attack. The second wave arriving at 2346 concentrated on the four Littorio class battleships. 58 Swordfish and 52 Buccaneers attacked into heavy anti-aircraft fire, with 5 Swordfish and 4 Buccaneers shot down. Littorio was hit by four torpedoes and 5 bombs, Vittorio by 2 torpedoes and 4 bombs, Sicilia by 3 1000lb bombs and Italia by 2 1000lb bombs, with Littorio blowing up half an hour later despite desperate attempts to save her. Vittorio was barely saved from sinking by running her aground with significant damage. The light cruisers Armando Diaz, Prospero Colonna and Luchino Visconti all sustained heavy bomb and strafing damage and three destroyers sunk in the second wave.

The aircraft were recovered by 0158 and the fleet retired to the southeast at 30 knots. The first Italian reconnaissance bomber flights took off at 0549 on October 22nd, but the carrier task force had continued its withdrawal under cover of RAF and RNAS fighter squadrons operating out of Crete. They were located by a Regia Aeronautica SM.82 flight at 0754, whereupon the Italian plane was shot down by Supermarine Eagles on combat air patrol, eliminating the possibility of an aerial counterstrike in revenge for the devastation inflicted upon Taranto. For the loss of 20 naval aircraft, the Regia Marina had been crippled and a famous victory achieved. 5 battleships, 2 carriers, 4 cruisers and 5 destroyers had been sunk, with 3 battleships, 5 cruisers and 12 destroyers damaged. The Battle of Taranto would have wide reaching consequences for both the Allies and Axis, but the night had been busy elsewhere.

2 carriers left for Italy, i assume they are prime targets for the Royal Navy.

Going to stay there to be completed ore will they move to the much safer United States.