At the risk of jumping into a storm here, but there is a third option.
IIRC, Not all the US Troops went home: They chose some units to remain in Europe to maintain a US Presence in the theatre. It would make sense, since Europe is the hottest theatre around, to use the Tarawa as a Flagship for a small European based Navel Presence to support those US troops there. After all, you really are not going to *need* a full fledged light carrier back in the US, whereas in Europe it allows you to have a solid RDF operating the Baltic where the quality of opposition requires the use of such equipment.
__________________
Member of the Bofors fan club! The M1911 of automatic cannon.
Proud fan(atic) of the CV90 Series.
|