American Reacts to Operation Black Buck (Part 1) | Falklands War 🇬🇧✈️ 

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Regarding the birds on Garvey Island, I remember the cartoon in the newspaper of a couple of seagulls with tin hats on, a Vulcan screaming overhead, and one seagull saying to the other "The noise is bad enough - but it's the droppings I really object to".

The people who live on the Falklands couldn't be more British if they tried 👍💕

We only had 2 carriers! Hermes was due to be decommissioned and Invincible was in the process of being sold to Australia. The Falklands are 8,000 miles away from Britain. Ascension Island is almost exactly halfway between us. US military chiefs of staff were adamant that this could not be done. They still hadn't learned to never underestimate what the RAF and the mighty Vulcan were capable of!!

I was on the flagship during the Falklands and remember black buck flying over us even though we couldn’t see it , it was a great morale booster to us , I’ve original photos of the damage done to the airfield which was minimal , the carriers harriers continued to attack the airfield with one of the harriers been shot down with the loss of the brave pilot .

I think one of the reasons for the Vulcan raid was to show we could hit The Falklands and the Argentinean mainland without the carriers that were on their way, it was partly a psychological thing and made the Argentineans think twice about basing fighters on the islands The aircraft carriers were still on their way and the aim of this mission was to stop the Argentineans basing fighters on the islands to attack those carriers with ease

" Shoving wet spaghetti up a cats backside" - Got to love the British sense of humour and way with words.

The Vulcans and refuelling planes needed a longer runway than that available on an Aircraft carrier.

A Vulcan is a huge aircraft, even a US Ford class couldn't take one.

There were two aircraft carriers involved, but the whole point of the operation was to deny the Argentinian Air Force the use of Port Stanley air base and thus protect the carriers.

The Vulcans did air to air refueling earlier in the 60's, but by the 80's they had stopped the practice, so they had to have refueling probes refitted and the crews needed to practice it.

If I remember correctly one of the critical parts of the refuelling mechanism couldn’t be found and was eventually discovered being used as an ashtray in the Sergeant’s mess. I think that they also sent some mechanics to Canada to strip pieces from a Vulcan in a flight museum there.

The flight to the Falklands was the longest bombing mission attempted by any air force.

Can't wait for the second video, I remember this war so vividly. Respect to the fallen and their families on both sides, I'm proud to be British, God save the Queen!

I remember the time well. This war proved that Britain, despite many cuts in the defence budget over the years, still had the spirit and determination to go to war to reclaim sovereign territory. One cannot underestimate the sheer scale of the operation. Getting the ships ready, including STUFT (merchant ships taken up from trade), including the cruise ship Canberra and liner QE2 which were converted to carry troops etc. You need to appreciate that the Falkland Islands, and South Georgia are a bloody long way from the UK and Ascension Island is about halfway. The Black Buck mission succeeded but like a lot of operations in that conflict it was “a close run thing”. What it did do most certainly was boost military and public morale. Everyone in the UK in particular was glued to the TV and reading the daily newspaper reports. I still remember one evening eating fish and chips out of the paper with a group of friends gathered around a friends open car door listening to the news on the car radio and hearing that HMS Sheffield had been hit by an Exocet missile. This really brought home that this conflict was very real indeed. In fact the owner of the car had a brother who was an army major who had his foot blown off by a land mine in the Falklands, I was with him some time later when he heard the news of this on the TV we were watching. There were lots of determined and heroic actions of all the armed services, and civilians caught up in the conflict and this truly makes one very proud to be British. We mustn’t forget too that there was a huge effort in diplomatic channels to try and negotiate for a peaceful end, and also the unseen efforts such as agents buying every Exocet missile worldwide to prevent them being supplied to the Argentines. But most important of all we must never forget those who paid the ultimate sacrifice and lost their lives never to return, and those still bearing the injuries and scars from this conflict.

Just to give you an idea of the size of a Vulcan, the aircraft you saw taking off from the carrier was a Harrier with a wingspan of about 25ft, the Vulcan's wingspan was circa 99ft.

When I was a child, I attended a few airshows. Jet planes obviously are pretty loud, but I don't think I have heard one as loud as a Vulcan. For me, it was the highlight of the show.

Vulcans did use air to air refuelling in the early 1960s but after a series of accidents, the practice was stopped. Many aircraft had their refuelling equipment removed. To reinstall the equipment they had to cannibalise other aircraft, including the one on display at the SAC Museum in Nebraska.

The reason why the practice bombing on the Scottish island was new to the crew is that the Vulcan was designed as a nuclear bomber - it had never been used to drop conventional bombs. That's also why accuracy was a problem they had never had to worry about before - it doesn't matter if you're a few hundred feet off if the warhead is nuclear!

You have to remember that the Vulcan was made to drop one huge nuclear bomb, and precision wasn't a key factor in doing that.

Yes the dangerous thing referred to at 07:12 was mid-air refuelling. It was dangerous because the Vulcan was a big aircraft. But used the more dangerous probe and drogue method of refuelling that small fighter jets usually used. (Catching a basket trailed by the refueller with a probe protruding from the receiving aircraft). Rather than the safer flyable boom method usually used by big aircraft. (The refueller lowers a long boom like pole into the receiving aircraft fuel inlet). Using the probe and drogue method meant the huge Vulcan had to fly dangerously close to the big refuelling Victor aircraft. That is what made it so dangerous.

By the time of Black Buck Air to Air refueling was a well established procedure and had been since the 1950's, but, it was mostly done by the smaller more maneuverable fighters, not a large bomber like the Vulcan. The Vulcan force had stopped practicing it many years earlier and it was something that the then current crews had to learn from scratch. The tanker aircraft that refueled the Vulcan's on this mission were Handley Page Victor's, itself a V Bomber like the Vulcan. They had been converted into tankers when the RAF had to switch to a low level attack profile against the Soviet Union following the shooting down of an American U2 aircraft flying at high altitude over the USSR. The Victor was less well suited to low level flight than the Vulcan but their payload made them useful as tanker aircraft once suitably modified. There were 2 Royal Navy aircraft carriers with the task force, HMS Hermes, the flag ship, and HMS Invincible, both carrying RN Fleet Air Arm BAE Sea Harriers. (a plane you might like to have a look at Sarah) Later they were reinforced with RAF Harrier GR3's that also operated from the carriers until landing strips were established ashore. These aircraft carried out many attacks against Argentinian targets in the Falkland Isles including the airport at Port Stanley. It was suggested by some that the whole reason for the Vulcan attacks was the RAF bomber force trying to 'get in on the action' , not wanting to leave all the glory to the Navy and Army. I offer no opinion on the matter 😆 Argentina had 4 principal combat aircraft that were used in the Falklands war, the French Mirage III and an Israel derivative the Dagger, The French Super Etandard naval strike aircraft (these carried the Exocet anti ship missile which made them the most dangerous to the task force) the American Douglas A4 Skyhawk attack aircraft and finally their home built Pucara turboprop light attack aircraft. The Argentinian pilots were very very good ! but were let down by some bad tactics coupled to having to operate at the limit of their range.

The carrier's were enroute with harriers (vertical take off) and did dog fighting among other things. Led to my favourite news quote, "for security reasons I can't tell you how many, but I counted them all out, and I counted them all back in again". There's a video somewhere about the harriers and the air battle where a British pilot meets the Argentinian he shot down.

Beautiful bird, love the Avro Vulcan. Fell in love at first sight and sound.

At the Black Buck 6 they had a problem with the refueling probe and had to land at Rio de Janeiro..so around 150-120 nautical miles away from Rio they got intercepted by 2 fighter jets of the Brazilian Air Force..ppl in Rio say that the fighter jets broke the sound barrier still above the city..sick story.

The Brits HAD sent a naval task force of about 45 ships (I think) , including aircraft carriers, but of course the Argentines knew when the naval task force had left Britain and presumably would start sending reinforcements to the Falklands. This raid was meant to be a surprise strike on the airfield to deny it to the Argentines, before the task force arrived!!

Martin Withers's book on this bombing run is excellent. A favourite story of mine is how the US Navy helped the RAF at Ascension Island. The USN officer tasked with this asked what the RAF wanted. "A super tanker, full of aviation fuel." was the answer. On enquiring what the RAF intended to do with such a vast amount of fuel, the answer was, "Burn it. We're going to burn it. All of it." He also talks about the participation at the USAF's Red Flag bombing exercises at Nellis AFB. Apparently, the crews manning the fake SAM sites on these said that there was nothing more life-affirming than being out in that desert at night, not seeing anything, I guess hearing the Vulcan's howl in the distance, and then for one to come directly overhead at 6feet altitude trailing bits of bushes and shrubbery that it had snagged. Also, when they say "the same bombs as dropped by the Lancaster bomber in WW2", they really mean it,. Some of the bombs dropped on the Falklands were made in WW2, and had been in storage ever since.

Martin Withers was the main display pilot for Vulcan XH558 which flew airshow displays in private hands from 2008 until 2015

One of the bits that was cut out was them finding part of they refueling system for the vulcan being used as an ash tray in the break room

As a kid, I remember the Vulcans flying over Stockport, near Manchester out of Woodford, Delta Wing jets is what they were known as, and what a sight in the sky

I’ve stood at Waddington ( air show ) when they did a squadron scramble with the Vulcans and as you’d expect the ground shook

I was privileged to have Wing Commander Alastair Montgomery as one of my flight instructors during the very early 1990's out of RAF Manston. I knew back then he served as a Vulcan Bomber pilot but it wasn't until many years later when the documentary came out I got to understand the efforts and challenges the crew had to endure.

Garvie Island in Scotland is still used as a target for RAF and Royal Navy aerial bombing practice today. It's also used to train the Royal Navy's bomb disposal divers. They disarm and remove any bombs dropped under the water which failed to explode.

Hello SoGal and Roger. Most of the answers are in this, or feel like spoilers for future videos that you should watch about the conflict. My Royal Navy dad's aircraft carrier was by this time the sole Argentinian one, having been Dutch in between, but they had some modern French made jets and missiles that could sink a carrier, so the runway had to be put out of action before the Royal Navy ships arrived. P.S. The nonelectric computer was not a bad thing in event of nuclear blast, which could knock out circuits. Some Soviet technology was tried and tested mechanical too, as I mentioned on a space video.

When the first raid took place the two British carriers were already involved in operations off the Falkland Islands. The broad idea was that the Vulcans would disable the runway, leaving the Harriers (on board the carriers) to concentrate on protecting the task force. Without minimising the skill and courage of the RAF crews involved I think it's fair to say the Harrier crews in particular thought the missions were a bit of a side show. The Harriers were tasked with photo reconnaissance after the raids, and their view was that if they were going to fly over the runway to take photos they might as well bomb it as well. That said, the raids sent a message to Argentina that the mainland could be similarly vulnerable to long range attack.

There is also the story of BN chinook helicopter which survived destruction because she was flying in between ships during an Argentinian air strike on her base ship, so all her spares and tools and most of her mechanics were gone before the full scale attack on the Falklands. They flew the war with out proper backup. Amazing story.

Royal navy had a couple of carriers in the Falkland conflict - but they were strictly fighters (Harriers) only - Vulcan was way too large to use them! - btw the harriers were etremely effective over Falkands - shooting down lots of argentinian aircraft without a sinlge loss to any harrier - the Argentinian pilots named the Harriers " La Muerte Negra " - The black death!

40th anniversary of the Falklands war this year. The Sea Harrier is worth looking into.

The induction howl from a Vulcan is one of the most (I’m struggling for the best word here) memorable aircraft sounds ever. Look for XH558 longest howl Vid.

They went with the Vulcans because of the time it would take for the task force to get Falklands and surprise the Arginine’s forces who thought it could not be done

There is a great book about the mission, Vulcan 607, tells the story in a lot of detail

18:52 Ascension Island is one of the many little lumps of rock claimed, and colonised, by the British in the 18th and 19th centuries so that the Royal Navy could re-supply and repair its ships. To this day they tend to have staunchly loyal citizens.

Really enjoying your videos and you are asking all the right questions 😉

The difficulty of mid-air refueling depends on the plane. When you approach the basket the air you're flying in is flowing around the airplane. This means that the wind at the nose is pushing slightly sideways. This in turn has a tendency of pushing the basket away from the plane. It's particularly difficult for them because the Vulcan is a gigantic bomber instead of a small fighter airplane. It's still difficult even for fighters. See Ward Carrol's channel on the difficulty of doing mid-air refueling with US Navy F-14 Tomcats in the first Gulf War.

The only carriers (20.000 tons + Hermes) we had at the time could only carry Harriers. The days of Bucaneers and Phantoms from carriers (60.000 ish tons, Ark Royal and Eagle) was long over, even though Bucaneers were in the gulf war many years later. Great vid, not seen the C4 one before, looking forward to the next episode.

Air-to-Air refueling was not a new thing at this point, it had been happening for decades. The problem was that Vulcan crews hadn't trained in the practice for around 10 years - the fueling pipes had all been removed, which meant a mad scramble to find parts they needed to recommission (in fact, a lot were nicked from RAF Waddington's museum) and then crash-course the pilots in performing the operation.

My daughter had my name engraved on a plaque under Vulcan XH558's wing as a birthday present.....very special. Sadly, there are no flying Vulcans left in the UK. To experience the take off of a scrambling Vulcan is unforgettable....

Ascension Island is an island in the Atlantic owned by Britain but usually used as a staging airfield by the USAF. Apparently the USAF were surprised when the RAF and the Navy turned up en-mass.

This was a preemptive move whilst the fleet moved into position... It was just to tell the Argentinians they weren't out of reach and we were coming, it was an act of intimidation towards an enemy before the fleet arrived - which was being heavily televised everywhere... It must have damaged Argentine moral... Also it takes weeks to move a fleet any distance, you don't just send an aircraft carrier, they're high priority targets and require an entire fleet to support it...

Victors used to be part of the nuclear V bomber fleet. After Royal Navy balistic missile submarines became Britain's nuclear deterrent, these aircraft were then converted to the inflight refueling tanker role.

Just to put something not a lot of people know about. Most people think that Britain fought the Falklands War alone. Although that is mostly true, it isn't entirely right. One country did aid us quite a bit and that country was Chile. They used their radar and early warning systems to help us secretly by letting us know when the Argentines were launching their attacks. In fact it proved how much help it was when the Chile early warning systems, which were way past their service renewals, went down. It resulted in our highest casualties until the Chile early warning systems were back on I think it was about a week later. You can find out more here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dMlu-qJRyU8.html

Theres just no way a plane like the Vulcan could take off and land from an Aircraft carrier. Apart from the size alone the amount of runway needed to take off and land far exceeds that of the biggest Aircraft carrier deck, even an American one. Its just not an option sadly. At the time the aircraft in the British inventory that were able to land on an Aircraft carrier could not carry sufficient ordnance of a large enough explosive weight to do sufficient damage to the runway. This was also prior to the development of runway penetration bombs and ordnance or for that matter before smart guided bombs that could be guaranteed to hit a target first time, every time. The Vulcan had to carry a large payload of bombs to ensure that a few might just hit the target from altitude at night with only an ancient bomb timing release system on board. It was basically 1950's/60's avionics technology being used in the 1980s.

The beauty of it was the argies thought they could just waltz right in there and Britain would'nt give a toss any more over some remote south atlantic island still under British Sovereignty. They got the biggest shock. That Vulcan raid opened their eyes to what our airforce was still very capable of. Harriers took care of the rest - La Muerte Negra

"I feel the need for speed"! This is my favourite line from Top Gun. Not any personnel recreational desire! The Vulcan raid on Port Stanley plus the sinking of the General Belgrano was a very important psychological victory over the Argentinians. Unfortunately people lost their lives because of these actions. But no invasion, No loss of life!! P.S. nice to have you back SoGal !

In air refueling is a lot eaiser in a fighter plane then it is in a Vulcan, due to a fighter plane being more manoverable.

The probe-and-drogue refueling method employs a flexible hose that trails from the tanker aircraft. The drogue (or para-drogue), sometimes called a basket, is a fitting resembling a shuttlecock, attached at its narrow end (like the "cork" nose of a shuttlecock) with a valve to a flexible hose. The drogue stabilizes the hose in flight and provides a funnel to aid insertion of the receiver aircraft probe into the hose. The hose connects to a Hose Drum Unit (HDU). When not in use, the hose/drogue is reeled completely into the HDU. The receiver has a probe, which is a rigid, protruding or pivoted retractable arm placed on the aircraft's nose or fuselage to make the connection. Most modern versions of the probe are usually designed to be retractable, and are retracted when not in use, particularly on high speed aircraft.[citation needed] At the end of the probe is a valve that is closed until it mates with the drogue's forward internal receptacle, after which it opens and allows fuel to pass from tanker to receiver. The valves in the probe and drogue that are most commonly used are to a NATO standard and were originally developed by the company Flight Refuelling Limited in the UK and deployed in the late 1940s and 1950s.[citation needed] This standardization allows drogue-equipped tanker aircraft from many nations the ability to refuel probe-equipped aircraft from other nations. The NATO standard probe system incorporates shear rivets that attach the refueling valve to the end of the probe.[citation needed] This is so that if a large side or vertical load develops while in contact with the drogue, the rivets shear and the fuel valve breaks off, rather than the probe or receiver aircraft suffering structural damage. A so-called "broken probe" (actually a broken fuel valve, as described above) may happen if poor flying technique is used by the receiver pilot, or in turbulence. Sometimes the valve is retained in the tanker drogue and prevents further refueling from that drogue until removed during ground maintenance.

15:30 The reason for the raid was to limit the risks to the carriers (as with the Port Stanley runway there you effectively make the Falklands a unsinkable aircraft carrier), so taking a carrier close enough for a fighter jet to attack the runway would have brought the carrier into too much danger.

The aircraft carriers were on their way with Harrier Jump Jets on board. The idea of sending the Vulcan was to destroy the runway on the island so the Argentinian air force could not attack the carriers as they got close.

The main limitation of using the carriers was that the Royal Navy only had about 20 Harriers to equip them. The Argentine Air Force had (on paper) a few *hundred* aircraft to oppose the British fleet. They couldn't risk losing a large number of Harriers, so everything was geared to project force with the least amount of risk.

To answer your question… No, mid-air refuelling wasn’t a new concept or practice. If you check out the 1979 movie “THE FINAL COUNTDOWN” (and I highly recommend it) you’ll see two US Navy F14 Tomcats (admittedly smaller and more manoeuvrable) refuelling mid-air. The Falklands War started in 1982… ie a few years after the technique was highlighted in the movie.

Glad the Air Force are your favourites So Gal. My Husband was in the RAF for 32 years !

Even back in the 80s mid air refueling was a common practice, it was around when the Vulcan was designed and first came into production in the 50s and 60s. The big but here is that it was a common practice for small, agile fighter aircraft, in an aircraft like that you sit at the end of the hose and there's a lot of separation between you and the tanker (Ok, when I say alot.... not that much, but enough) whereas in a big bird like the Vulcan.. yeah..... not so much. Also, of course, a small fighter is much more maneuverable, which makes a big difference, it means it's theoretically better able to get into position on the basket, and also better able to make a rapid breakaway if things go bad.

I've subscribed to you, love seeing you like my nation over the past months! ❤️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The carriers HMS Hermes and HMS invincible were both in the task force. But Britain expected to lose at least one of the carriers. However HMS Illustrious and HMS Arc Royal were both being built and were finished early during the conflict. So two more carriers were ready as replacements. It may seem brutal logic now, but it was war and the country responded. Ordinary people in the ship yards worked round the clock to finish those ships just in case.

a Vulcan is enormous in size. Way too big to fly from an aircraft carrier.

Nice video. I love the top gun glasses and jacket too

Great reaction video SoGal really snazzy outfit there.

Mid air refueling is a relatively easy thing now, with computers assisting the pilots. It was less easy in the 80s, but modern planes (by the standards of that time) flown by trained pilots could still pull it off. The problem was that the Vulcans weren't really modern, even by 1980s standards. In fact, they were damn near obsolete, and they didn't have any of the fancy electronic assistance either. Remember, their targeting 'computer' was purely mechanical, and that was one of the most advanced systems on the entire plane. They pilots even mentioned the bits of bicycle chain.

The population of the Fallands was and is tiny (even today, it's just over 3000.) The actual settlers that lived there, and their ancestors, were and are British. In spite of Argentinian attempts to flex sovereignty at a couple of points in history, they never had a civilian population living there. English is the official language. In a referendum less than 10 years ago, 99.8% of Falklanders voted to remain under British soveriegnty. Tellingly, Argentina to this day refuses to recognise that the Falklanders are entitled to an opinion.

Nobody had ever thought about refuelling a Vulcan in mid-air, because it wasn't supposed to need it. With an aircraft of the Vulcan's size, the situation could get a little hairy. The Vulcan was designed to deliver nuclear strikes against the Soviet Union, the conventional bomb-load was written into the specification, but never intended to be used. The closest base was Ascension Island, about halfway. The carriers were already on their way with the Task Force, but the carrier hasn't been built that can take a Vulcan.

The Vulcan was designed as a nuclear bomber the conventional bombing role was secondary. When the Vulcan entered service at altitude it was more maneuverable than contemporary fighters. The aerial refueling was dangerous because of the size of the Vulcan and the delicate maneuvers needed to get the probe in the basket. The last British aircraft carrier that could have carried out a long-range attack on the Falklands was the old Ark Royal operating Phantoms and Buccaneers.

For some background information about the Falklands islands it’s a self-governing territory of the UK and has about 3,400 people living there, the UK has been in continuous control since 1833 (the first British colony was founded in 1765, Argentine didn’t exist in any independent capacity until 1810) but both side have had a claim to the islands with other parties also being involved at the beginning including France and Spain, the people on the islands identity as British and in a referendum in 2013 the people of the Falklands voted to remain British (99.8% in favour) as opposed to Argentine rule. Here is a good video on the subject by King’s and Generals. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3e8Ms0pbPcw.html

Good vid. I recall watching this documentary a good few years back. The Q on why no aircraft carriers has been answered. But, as per usual the US backed us up, and the French sold their exocet missiles to the military junta in Argentina.

I believe that the reason this attack was not carried out with carrier-based aircraft was simply that they wanted the Port Stanley runway out of action before either of the carriers (yes, we had a total of two aircraft carriers in the RN at the time) was within striking distance. If the Argentine air force was able to use Port Stanley as a base, they'd be striking at the British carriers at the same time as the British carrier-borne aircraft were striking at Port Stanley. And the Argentine air force had a couple of state-of-the-art Mirage fighter jets that could outfly anything in the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm at the time.

We only had one conventional carrier left at that point which was HMS Hermes and HMS Invincible which was a small carrier but both had been fitted with a Ski Jump so the Harriers could use them fully loaded. Thatcher had asked Reagan for help with Naval and Airforce Equipment but it was officially refused however the CIA did overfly a spy satellite and the US Airforce provided some aviation fuel unofficially at Ascension Island. The Sea Harriers were used as fighters and the RAF Harriers onboard were equipped for Ground Attack. If the Blackburn Buccaneers that the Navy previously used on HMS Hermes and HMS Ark Royal had not been scrapped in the last defence review they could have used that instead of the Vulcans (HMS Ark Royal was also decommissioned by the time of the Falklands War).

Such a great story and only a couple of years before i joined the Royal Air Force. Thanks for doing this one.

The Fslklands are officially an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom and Falkland Islanders are British citizens. Argentina claim the Falklands as part of Argentina and call it the Malvinas. In 2013 a referendum was held the vote was 1513 in favour of maintaining the present position with 3 against. Quite a landslide. There are now about 3500 people who live there. It's worth a closer look.

I’ve always found very the differing attitude of the Vulcan pilots to the Black Back mission quite intriguing, Reeve (enthusiastic), Withers (not that enthusiastic). By this time, all of the Victors that the RAF had remaining had been converted to tankers, the Vulcan was the only bomber capable of performing this mission. There was a lot of ‘signalling’ going on prior to the British counter attack, ‘broadcasting’ the Vulcan mission was part of that. With a task force of 127 ships (including merchants) the British were informing the Argentines that they meant business. It took 3 weeks for the task force to sail from the UK to the Falklands which was enough time for the Argentines to pack up and leave or face being forcibly ejected.

Great video thanks from England 🇬🇧

SoGal: The UK didn’t have an aircraft carrier big enough to take a Vulcan Bomber, also a Vulcan couldn’t do a short takeoff from a carrier

They were a new crew and had never refuelled in the air before other crews had done it before .

The two British aircraft carriers were operating Sea Harriers and Harrier GR3 ground attack aircraft, the problem was we had a limited number of aircraft and any loses would have had an effect on the conduct of the conflict (it was not a war, there are differences). The Vulcan had a considerably larger bomb load but not the accuracy of the Harriers who later raided the Stanley airfield with only minor damage to one aircraft. Should add Ascension is about 3500 miles (ca. 5,633 km) from Stanley.

The Falkland islands are at the tip of South America, they are closer to the south pole than Accession Island which is near the equator. The distance is colossal and much further from the UK than Russia. A Task force with our two Carriers was on the way but still a week away. The Carrier had Harrier Jump jets, which small fighter bombers. The Vulcan is far to big to land on a carrier, it would be like trying to land a B52 on a carrier. The Task force was the Navy and Army. Black Buck was the Air forces contribution to the war and the Vulcan raid was opening action. It had two options to show the Argentinians that they were at risk and knock out the runway at Post Stanley airfield which could launch jets that could threaten the Task force meaning that the Argentinians would need to fly from the Argentinians mainland and significantly cut their range, keep the Taskforce out of their range for longer.

For a Vulcan to take off, you would need the length of 3-5 Enterprise length carriers

12:33 Intresting fact for you, the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano was a WW2 made US Cruiser and the Torpedo that sank the ship was a WW2 British Torpedo (After the modern ones for the UK submarine failed), in fact most of the Argentine Navy was made up of ships from WW2 or just after WW2. Added fact the US Navy still had a large stockpile of its rather infamous WW2 Mark 14 Torpedos around this time.

About aerial refuelling. So, the Vulcan was designed for refuelling in mid air, but it was such a worryingly dangerous manoeuvre that they stopped doing it for a solid 20 years. And in the bit that was lost, they talked about rushing to find components for the Vulcan's refuelling system. They even found a particular component being used as an ash tray in the crew room.

I recall Ark Royal our full sized AirCraft Carrier was being refitted at the time, this left only two smaller Sea Harrier (Jump Jet) Aircraft Carriers available to provide Air Cover.

Hi, the bit that was missed out is outlined here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-e5yAtuYPHK4.html The refuelling was really really complex--they had to refuel a plane that refuelled another plane and they'd peel off leaving one to go through to the target. BTW my Dad was in the Falklands, he was one of the guys who walked across the island in the open and then attacked the mountains around Port Stanley. We didn't think they'd actually need to fight, but they did. I remember seeing him getting off the ship, I was 6.

The problem with the Falklands war was that the Falklands are a very, very, very long way away.

Part of the missing section explained that a vital part needed for air to air refueling could not be found ... It was eventually located in the mess where it was being used as an ashtray !

Imagine trying to land a 747 on an aircraft carrier, you saw Harriers using a ramp to take off from a Carrier, a Vulcan is many times bigger than a Harrier, also the right wing would be hitting the tower of the carrier.

Airwoof made the howling noise, thats why Airwoof is as iconic as the Vulcan. The population in the Falklands was mostly sheep and about a couple of thousand people at max. Message to Russia and China, we are British and we are simply mad and you can't beat that. Best of luck From Great Britain

It was at the time the longest return bomber run in history, until the yanks flew to Afghanistan

The Vulcan nuked America two years running when testing Americas defence systems. It is available on ut, I've seen it a few years ago. The UK could only use sovereign territories to attack the Falklands, friendly foreign countries were not pressured to get involved, Ascension Island is mid Atlantic off the west coast of Africa.

Was at RAF Waddington with the A T C and got to sit inside the cockpit in 1982.The noise of them taking off at night was incredibly

The navy was on the way at the time and Thatcher was determined to do something as a show of force. Not only is the Vulcan a very big aircraft, our main carrier = the Ark Royal = had been retired much to the chagrin of many. We only had the Hermes (a commando carrier) and those poxy; tiddley; Intrepid class things which were essentialy helicopter carriers. Neglect and government cutbacks had butchered the navy (in my view) to the point where Britain was just not prepared for major conflict in the South Atlantic. The Royal Navy deserves full credit for pulling things together like they did but there were a lot of tragic mistakes. Without doubt, the navies real equaliser was HMS Conqueror.

Good stuff,best wishes from the wirral...

Air to air refueling was not new but at the time no one was current or practiced in doing it. One of the refueling probe nozzles was an ash tray on some ones desk at the time and was removed, refurbished and reinstalled onto a Vulcan.

I’m too young to remember the war (born in the mid 90’s) but I love seeing the old pictures of the task force leaving/returning to my home city of Portsmouth. Most of our pubs in Portsmouth still have pictures or item that Commemorate the war. We have a “yomper” statue remembering the brave lads that fought in the Falklands and it was always placed outside our Royal Marines Museum. The local council sold off the Royal Marines museum but thankfully after a lot of local protests the statue has now been saved and moved to our historic dockyard.

The population of The Falklands was mostly sheep, then Brits.