Inter- and Intra-Theatre Learning and British Coastal Air Power in the Second World War

Abstract

Historians have not yet attempted to integrate the global nature of Britain’s war with the process and outcome of military learning, and British approaches are generally presented as being compartmentalized within each theatre. This article demonstrates that in the crucial field of coastal air power, while intra-theatre learning processes were important, the British were indeed capable of inter-theatre learning. A symbiotic, mutually beneficial relationship evolved between the Home and Mediterranean theatres that contributed positively to its development. However, they failed to create a similar arrangement for the Indian Ocean, which could only act as a receptor for externally created knowledge.