Participation of the Royal Navy's Aircraft Carriers and Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific Air War was a political issue of the first order.

Prior to World War II Australia looked to the Royal Navy for its maritime security, but in 1942 it proved impossible for the RN to retain this mission.  In response to urgent Australian appeals for assistancethe RN initially promised HMS Hermes to the ANZAC naval force.  However, the carrier was retained in the Indian Ocean in February 1942 as relations between Australia and Great Britain became strained over the redeployment of Australia's military assets in response to the Japanese threat and as the United States deployed carriers to the South Pacific.  Hermes was sunk in the Indian Ocean in April 1942.

The Australian answer to the Japanese fast carrier force that was dominating the Pacific at the time was for the Allies to combine six USN and three RN carriers into a fast carrier task force capable of taking on the Japanese.  At the time Australia was unaware of Roosevelt and Churchill's secret "Beat Germany First" strategy and neither the great powers was willing to agree to the proposal.  The issue was resolved temporarily when the USN changed the balance of power in the Pacific at the Battle of Midway in June 1942. 

Once the South West Pacific Area was established under General MacArthur, any initiative for basing USN carriers in Australia was blocked by American interservice rivalry.

By late1942 the carrier shortage in the Pacific had once again become so severe that, like the Australian's before them, the Americans requested that British fast carriers be assigned to the South Pacific.  In response, after the completion of the North Africa invasion and a refit at Norfolk, the HMS Victorious was assigned to the USN, arriving at Pearl Harbor 4 March.  She operated with USS Saratoga in the South Pacific between 17 May and 31 August covering operations in the Central Solomons.  Her assigned complement was 30 Wildcats and 15 Avengers.  She returned to Pearl Harbor 9 August and was released from duty in September.  She returned to England via Panama by 15 October. 

As the mission of the RN's fast carriers in the Atlantic and Mediterranean waned during 1944, they were gradually deployed to the 1^st Carrier Squadron in the Indian Ocean. Meanwhile, Winston Churchill sought to regain a measure of Great Britain's lost prestige by assigning the unit to the Pacific Air War.  This move was opposed by Admiral King on the grounds that the RN had under estimated the logistical support requirements.

King was overruled and in 1945, the RN committed British Pacific Fleet (BPF) to the Pacific Air War.  The fleet raided Palembang on 24 January while enroute from the Indian Ocean to its new main support base at Sydney, Australia, arriving 10 February. 

For the remainder of the war, the 1^st Carrier Squadron maintained an on line strength of 4 fast carriers from the 4 Illustrious Class and 2 Indefatigable Class aircraft carriers.  The standard complement of an Illustrious was 35 Corsairs or Hellcats plus 15 Avengers.  The standard complement of an Indefatigable was 40 Seafires, 20 Avengers, and 9 Fireflys.

The BPF was well received by the American fleet in the Pacific, whose fast carriers were experiencing increased attrition from Japanese kamikazes and whose logistics infrastructure was able to make up British deficiencies.  The real contribution of the BPF was to provided needed fast carrier reinforcements at a time when kamikazes were thinning the ranks of America's Fast Carrier Task Force.