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Discodog

“Monty Python couldn’t have done it any better,” chuckles one squadron leader, describing the 8,000-mile mission to bomb Port Stanley’s runway at the start of the Falklands War.

It’s a tale of very British muddling through, not least because the raid used the RAF’s antiquated Vulcan jet, designed in the 1940s and due to be scrapped. One veteran recalls how the bombing “computer” worked using pulleys and bicycle chains; another recalls the nightmare of refuelling in midair, something nobody had tried in a Vulcan for 20 years. It’s a gripping story, with some terrific characters.

kona

Read the book on this, very interesting, and amazing the way they just about pulled it off!

Discodog

Sums up the Falklands War

Nforce

kona wrote: »

Read the book on this, very interesting, and amazing the way they just about pulled it off!

Yeah..I've the book too "Vulcan 607". To be honest,while it was a fantastic achievement to get a Vulcan in theatre...as a military operation it was a failure with only a single 1,000lb bomb hitting Port Stanley's runway. There's an interesting discussion on the matter on pprune.

Discodog

Nforce wrote: »

Yeah..I've the book too "Vulcan 607". To be honest,while it was a fantastic achievement to get a Vulcan in theatre...as a military operation it was a failure with only a single 1,000lb bomb hitting Port Stanley's runway. There's an interesting discussion on the matter on pprune.

I wonder if we will ever know the real success of the operation. It does appear to of scared the Argentinians regarding the risk of bombing on the mainland. It remained the longest distance raid ever until the Gulf War. Bloody long way in an ancient aeroplane

The funny bit was that the Brazilians finally released the Vulcan that had to emergency land but "confiscated" it's missile

Brian_Zeluz

I read the book around a year ago and from what I can recall the mission wasn't a failure in any sense.The whole point of the mission was to hit the runway just once because that was all that was required and was what the Brits planned to do, hitting it a few times would be a bonus. The point was that the runway was barely large enough for the Argies jets and that they had no quick and easy way to fix it so all the Brits needed to do was hit it once and the threat was effectively neutralised.

Tenger

Nforce wrote: »

...........as a military operation it was a failure with only a single 1,000lb bomb hitting Port Stanley's runway........

The mission denied the Argentine's the full use of the airfield, so in fact it was a success but not however a 100% success. They could still operate C-130's but were unable to use it for fast jets (Mirage/A-4/Super Entendard's)

Strategically the raid (and the other Vulcan missions) were not very efficient in terms of assets used, they needed about 10 tankers to get 2-3 Vulcans on target.

munchkin_utd

the show is also here on the 4Od player :

Falklands' most daring raid!

Nforce

Have a read of the thread on Pprune...very interesting perspectives from both sides of the conflict.:)
There was something like 53x 1000lb bomb dropped by the Black Buck missions of which only one hit the runway. The Argentines were a lot more concerned about the (US sourced) Shrike missiles than the bombs.
I believe that the Argentines would create fake bomb "craters" using bulldozers so that the recce Harriers would assume that more damage had been caused.

The show's title is a bit of a misnomer as I reckon there were a lot more daring raids during the Falklands conflict...in particular the SAS raid on Pebble Island.


Edit: Hard to believe this happened almost 30 years ago....I can still remember the TV reports as if it were yesterday.

Edit 2: According to some of the Argentine forces that took part in the conflict, the Vulcan raids were expected as they had been pre-warned by merchant ships that were spying off the coast of Ascension Island.

Nforce

Falklands Sea Harrier pilot, Sharkey Ward's view on Black Buck... http://www.phoenixthinktank.org/2011/12/falklands-30-rewriting-history/

finbarrk

That was great. Watched it a few nights ago.

cml387

There is another classic thread on PPRUNE called I think "Who flew the Vulcan" which discusses detail down to the nuclear bomb release mechanism (to the alarm of some ex military who still lived somewhat in the past).

Devote an hour or two to reading it, it's fascinating.

Nforce

cml387 wrote: »

There is another classic thread on PPRUNE called I think "Who flew the Vulcan" which discusses detail down to the nuclear bomb release mechanism (to the alarm of some ex military who still lived somewhat in the past).

Devote an hour or two to reading it, it's fascinating.

Thanks..must check that out. I've always had a weird fascination with Vulcans after watching James Bond's Thunderball for the very first time.:)