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Re: Stukas and HMS Illustrious.
Thank you Juha for your response.
I have the said article, and it is there that I picked up the info-snippet that the R could only carry one 250 kg bomb.("resticted to a maximum offensive load" of 250 kg. Closer look shows that it is in fact said about the R-1 model, but the R-2 is said to have primarily differed in installed equipment.
On the other hand, there is no logical explanation of why the R should be structurally limited to carrying only the 250 kg bomb. After all, you ought always to be able to trade off one form of payload (fuel) for another (bombs). But in that case, the R should be even shorter ranging than the B-2, which the article credits with 595 km max range, which should equate a radius of action of ca. 200 km, using the 1/3 rule of thumb.
There is no data on economica cruise speed, but using continous max cruise, (ca 300 km/h) with radar range of 100 km. (I donīt have it for the radar installed in Illustrious and Valiant), 20 minutes warning time would have been available for the carrier, before the Stukas were overhead. Which would, or would not, have been sufficent to scramble fighters, depending on the state of the organization onboard the carrier. (It would have been enough for the US at Coral Sea, but that is a different story.).
Birgir Thorisson
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