As an aside.
As the subject of manning levels of the RN Vs the USN ships has been raised.
I can only draw a comparison between the British and US armies, but the parallels that we see may be relevant. My (UK) unit visited a motor-pool on a US base in Germany. They had about 3x the number of mechanics we would have in the same size unit. They were each highly specialised, for example working on carburetors was the job of a specialist. He probably would never change a wheel bearing. I mentioned to one of the US Sergeants that this was inefficient. He fully agreed, and said that the US army mechanics also found this frustrating.
BUT
There was something the US Army calls 'busy work'. The idea is to keep ALL men occupied in some way, needed when you have larger compliments of men.
This sounds silly if you are running the military as a business, as the UK Ministry of Defense tries to do. But in a war zone (the natural environment for the military) you will take casualties. The more surplus personnel you have, the more operationally effective you can remain if you take casualties. Particularly if you take heavy casualties. All this extra manpower is costly, but the US has never been afraid to spend money on defense.