Black Buck RaidsThe Black Buck raids were the opening attack from the Royal Air Force onto Port Stanley airport, which was under Argentinean control. The crew had never seen action before and were using outdated ageing aircraft; the Vulcan bomber. The Vuclan bombers were based at RAF Waddington, in Lincolnshire, and was a nuclear deterant to the Cold War with the Soviet Union. The bomber was not designed for long range missions such as this, however it was the only bomber still in service that could refuel in mid air. In early 1982, the Vulcan bombers were three months away from being buldozed in their entirity. The attacks set a record for the longest in history, covering 8 000 miles; 4 000 miles from Ascension island to the Falklands, and then the repeat journey. The first mission had two objectives. 1. Make the airports runway unusable to help protect the Task Force by making all planes on the island unable to take off. 2. Scare the Military Junta with fears of more attacks over 8 000 miles to bomb mainland Argentina. As Hugh Prior, an Aircraft Electronics Officer at the time of the raids stated, "the technology in the Vulcans was very old. They had a bombing computer. It was driven by wheels, pulley's, bycicle chain. There was nothing electronic in it," he went on to argue, "there was simply so much the Vulcan and the crews lacked when we were told we would be flying thousands of miles over the sea, the Vulcan was never designed for that distance." On 9th April 1982. RAF airbase Waddington was told to prepare for war. It was of vital importance that the runway at Stanley was destroyed before the Task Force entered the exclusion zone. That gave them just three weeks to complete the attack. A little known fact about these raids is that the Vulcan's refueling system no longer worked. The RAF sent teams to search scrap yards looking for the parts needed. Fortunatley, these parts were found allowing 3 crews to be selected for training. Only one of these would fly the actual mission, simply because the RAF did not have the resources or refueling aircraft to refuel 2 Vulcan bombers. |
In charge of the operation Wing Commander Simon Baldwin. Shocked by the speed at which events were happening. The Vulcan proved
exceptionally difficult to refuel mid air. In peacetime the training for this would have taken several months, far more than the three weeks available. Baldwin sent the three crews on practice runs to attack islands offshore Scotland, for their similarities to the terrain in the Falklands. The pilots had trained to launch nuclear bombing attacks and had to learn how to bomb using Iron bombs. The crews had to hit a 120 ft wide. Very accurate compared to nuclear bombs. Since the conflict the pilots have admitted how small the chances were that the Vulcan would be accurate enough to hit the runway. Added to this the air defenses at Port Stanley very strong, including lots of sold British anti air equipment which was state of the art. The 3 man crew finally chosen for the raid was; Alister Montgomery. Sqd Leader, John Reeve. Flt Leiuteneant Martin Withers. No one on Ascension island had a map of the South Atlantic for the navigators to use, instead a world map had to be turned upside down. jeremy Price, commanding the mission from Ascension island, said, "When we started the lauch on that night. I felt we had a forty percent chance of sucess." This percentage fell quickly as the lead Vulcan's cabin failed to pressurise, and would freeze all crew if they did not abort, just four minutes after take off. During the raid it also became apparant that the aircraft was using more fuel than could provide a return journey. The crew all agreed to continue. Vulcan 607 attacked Port Stanley runway under cover of darkness and did put the runway out of action. Despite much anti aircraft fire from Port Stanley and a shortage of fuel, the crew was able to safetly return to Ascension island. The attack was followed by a harrier strike the following morning. |
This attack, although it did cause damage to the runway, is most significant for the psychological escalation of this conflict. Raising the stakes for Argentina by showing the full firepower of the Royal Air Force. The attacks also raised the question, 'if the Vulcan can travel 4 000 miles to attack the Falklands, surely it can travel 4 250 miles to bomb mainland Argentina.'
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