Stukas and HMS Illustrious.

[Birgir Thorisson]

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 don´t 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

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Birgir Thorisson

On the other hand, there is no logical explanation of why the R should be structurally limited to carrying only the 250 kg bomb.
Birgir Thorisson

Just a thought but what about the crutch that swung the bomb outside the airscrew arc when dive-bombing? Might not the strength of that be a limitation?

[Csaba B. Stenge]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

Just a thought but what about the crutch that swung the bomb outside the airscrew arc when dive-bombing? Might not the strength of that be a limitation?

Good point. There were problems with that device (the normal, not strenghtened one was damaged many times by 500 kg bombs) Perhaps the Bertas used mostly 250 kg bombs on that sortie (I guess, so numerous 500 kg hits would be fatal despite of the armoured deck)

[Graham Boak]

I offer the account given in Norman Friedman's British Carrier Aviation, which I think should be a fairly definitive source.

On 10th January there were eight hits:
1. 500lb bomb on S2 pom-pom
2. 1000lb bomb through port forward end of flight deck, bursting above the water outside the ship
3. 1000lb bomb through the aft lift exploding above the lift platform
4. 1000lb bomb through the flight deck on the centreline, exploding above the hangar deck
5. 500lb bomb on the edge of the aft lift, exploding high in the well
6. 1000lb bomb through P1 pompom, hit edge of armour deck but did not explode, did cause fire
7. 1000lb bomb near miss starboard side aft
8. 500lb bomb down aft liftwell.

On 16th January in Valetta harbour
Several near misses
9. 1000lb bomb through flight deck exploding in captain's day cabin
10. 1000lb bomb nearmiss on portside, causing 5 degree list due to smashed plating, cracking the port turbine feet.

I believe I've seen it written that the Luftwaffe carried 1000lb bombs, the Regia Aeronautica 500lb, but cannot quote a source. This would seem reasonable enough.