That change in thought was helped along by the fact that a big chunk of the battleship fleet was sunk at Pearl Harbor, while the carriers weren’t there. Thus the carriers were what we had to fight with at the beginning of the war. That combined with the obvious effectiveness of the Japanese carrier attack made it pretty clear where the emphasis needed to be. Remember the sinking of Prince of Wales and Repulse happened just a few days after Pearl Harbor, so it was pretty easy to see the writing on the wall. Thinking about it, the Battle of Taranto had occurred a year before, and saw capital ships bested by *Fairey Swordfish*, for crying out loud!
Imagine what the butch swordfish could have done.
Actually, Taranto is one of the most amazing operations of the whole war. An attacking force of 21 obsolete biplanes, only eleven carrying torpedoes, damaged three battleships, effectively sinking them because they ran aground in the shallow harbor, for the loss of two planes, two casualties, and at NIGHT!