Stukas and HMS Illustrious.

[Birgir Thorisson]

Esteemed Stuka- experts on this forum

I turn to you to clarify what excactly hit HMS Illustrious on January 10th 1941. I have tried to search the forum, but cannot find anything on these events.

There is a long-standing disagreement, among those interested in naval warfare, about the value of the british armoured carriers of the Illustrious class.
The argument centers on the survivability of armour, versus the defence offered by a larger airgroup of modern fighters.

The most important example to the defenders of the armoured (box) carriers is the survival of HMS Illustrious in January 1941.

However, I am finding conflicting data about what happened. The standard account is that it was hit by 6-8 bombs, mostly 500 kg armour piercing bombs, maybe 1-2 250 kg SAP bombs. (The official record is 10 550kg bombs, (D.K. Brown, Nelson to Vanguard, p.205), but on p.51 he says 7 hits, probably 500kg.)
That the attack on jan. 10th was carried out by 50-100 Stukas of I. StG 1 and II. StG 2.

Paul-Werner Hözzel, Kommandeur I. StG 1, wrote an account for Charles Lamb, published in "War in a Stringbag". He differs in two respects from the "standard account". A) He only arrived on january 13th, and therefore did not take part in the Jan.10th attack, and B) that in later attacks on Illustrious in Valetta harbour, the Stukas carried 1000 kg bombs, which broke up on the armour.

However. I recall reading an account by a former Stuka ace in a british aviation magazine about a decade ago, where he claimed that the heavy bombs were reserved for the battleships, and Illustrious was attacked by planes carrying the 250 kg bombs. Unfortunately, I didn´t buy the magazine, so I don´t have it, and don´t recall other details.

The questions I have are;
1) How many Stukas attacked on January 10th.?
2) What kind of bombs did they carry?
3) How many were Ju 87B and how many Ju 87R?
4) Could the Ju 87R carry 500kg bombs?
5) Could the Ju 87 carry 1000kg bombs?
6) Could the Ju 87B trade off bombload for range. (i.e. carry external drop tanks?) (This question because of the claim that the Germans knew that Illustrious was armoured, and therefore had to be attacked by 500kg AP bombs, thus reducing the range at which Stukas could attack, in a round-about way, creating a sort of an immunity zone for the carriers).
7). How long would it take the Stukas to arrive over the carrier at attacking height (I have seen both 12000 feet and 16000 feet mentioned), from the moment the incoming strike was detected on Radar?
(Both the Illustrious, and the battleship HMS Valiant had radars?
8) What was the radius of action of the Stuka? (Was it greater than the Bf 109?)

The last two questions pertain to the value of shipborn interceptors as an alternative defence for the ship.


Birgir Thorisson