[Juha]

Hello Birgir
R-1 could also use drop tanks and had longer max range than R-2.

On radar, radar ranges are bit problematic, it varied depending on target height but not linearly, at least those of USN air warning radars in 1944, say target could be "seen" from 75 mls if at 20000ft, from 76 mls but disappearing between 73 and 65 mls if at 17000ft and from 78 mls if at 15000ft and then the horizon was the determining factor, numbers are only to give the idea. Japanese were very skillful to utilize the height anomalies but those anomalies also gave a good indication of target height to good radar operators.

Did the gruppen had uniform equipment, my info that they had is from A. Price large article on Ju 87 in Feb 2005 Aeroplane Monthly, so I'm not absolutely sure that the info is correct. I'm pretty sure that 54 Ju 87s had just arrived on Sicily and 43 participied the 10 Jan attack against Illustrious, these numbers are given in Shores et al Malta Hurricane Years and in Smith's Ju 87 book.

IMHO the limiting factor for R-1 was more probably that with full fuel load the max permissible t/o weight didn't allow 500 kg bomb load.

Juha