[foldr]

That's not so clear, at least in the Atlantic theatre. How would you sink the Bismarck with just subs and carriers? As it happens, the lucky torpedo strike from Ark Royal played a pivotal role in its sinking, but submarines couldn't go fast enough to catch it, and an unescorted carrier would have been extremely vulnerable.

It's hard to say for sure, but in a way it seems that the Hood and the Prince of Wales actually stood a much better chance of causing serious damage to the Bismarck than the Ark Royal did, even if that's not how events happened to play out. (And in fact damage from the Prince of Wales's guns did help to slow the Bismarck down and force it to attempt to go to port to refuel.)