How aircrews recognized ships in the harbour

How could Taranto aircrews identify individual ships during the night attack?

They had ship-recognition training and reconnaissance photographs taken on the morning of the raid.

The crews had ship-recognition training and reconnaissance photographs taken on the morning of the operation. The account tentatively identifies Charles Lamb as one of those involved in collecting the current intelligence. These photographs gave the aircrews a recent layout of the ships and harbour. They could compare that image with the moonlit target rather than rely on an old chart alone.