The Luftwaffe attack in the Mediterranean

10th January 1941: As Hitler gets dragged into Mussolini's war, land-based Stuka dive bombers hit HMS Illustrious - with several vivid accounts from survivors

A bomb explodes on HMS ILLUSTRIOUS while another near miss lands next to her.

The Luftwaffe announced its arrival in the Mediterranean with a vengeance. The new aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, whose planes had so successfully attacked the Italian fleet at Taranto, was the subject of a sustained attack by Ju 87 dive-bombers as it escorted a convoy to Malta.

HMS Illustrious, commissioned in May 1940, was the lead ship of her class, HMS Illustrious was attacked by dive bombers. 10 January 1941, in the Mediterranean off the Italian island of Pantelleria. In the first action by German bombers in the Mediterranean, HMS Illustrious survived a ferocious attack, including that of over 40 Ju-87’s and Ju-88’s, to make it to Malta.

A near miss seen from HMS Illustrious.

Air Mechanic Rayburn¹ was on board HMS Illustrious and somehow lived to tell his story:

My action station as with all maintenance crews, was in the hanger with the aircraft, which by the way were all heavily armed, and loaded with torpedoes ready for an attack on the Italian Fleet.

Illustrious was armed with 16 4.5 dual purpose guns, and 8 6 barrelled 2lb quick firing AA weapons.  The ship kept jumping and shaking.  Several large bombs hit the shop aft, and the after hanger was on fire.  The noise was indescribable.  In my baptism of fire, all that sticks in my mind are impressions.

I was standing more or less in the centre of the hanger.  A chap came down from the flight deck; his rubber suit was full of holes with blood leaking from all of them. I helped carry him down to the casualty station in the washroom flats.

The surgeons were busy.  Blood washed from side to side with the sway of the ship.

I returned to my action station in the hangar.  The ship continued to rock and sway.

Hole in the armoured flight deck where a 1,250 lb. bomb crashed through.