Stukas and HMS Illustrious.

[Graham Boak]

Don't expect too much from wartime radar. Coverage was not 100% at all altitudes, but the transmission produced a number of lobes. Detection would be good for the quoted distances inside the lobes, but aircraft at the correct altitude could get close to the fleet without being detected. The Japanese are known to have made use of this in their attacks on the USN.

It is perhaps an open question whether ay this stage the Germans would have been aware of this as a technique, but it could well have worked to their benefit by chance.