I am not sure what the parent specifically has in mind, but Churchill wasn't Navy Minister during WW2, and didn't have the same direct control over the navy like he did in WW1, where he really blundered through it.

Indeed, I might imagine the UK doing better in WW2, because Churchill was less in direct control of operations.

Although in those times when Churchill did take direct control in WW2, he tended to screw things up. The disastrous campaigns in Norway and Greece, for instance, both had his fingerprints all over them.

Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty before he took over from Chamberlain.

He was very much responsible for the Norwegian Campaign, which was widely considered a fiasco that handed Hitler a decisive victory and gave the latter enough political momentum to continue with his war plans.

https://www.historynet.com/scandinavian-twist-churchills-194...

Churchill was directly responsible for the Gallipoli disaster (and the naval disaster it was intended to support), he resigned from the government in disgrace