Black Buck One, the Vulcan Raid on the Falklands - Animated 

Hello Ladies and Gents. Your positive comments really are appreciated. I create these videos in my spare time around a full time day job. Each one takes around 60-70 man hours of effort to produce, even longer on complex videos like Schweinfurt-Regensburg and the Battle of Midway. My goal is to reach 100k subscribers by the end of 2020. If you enjoy The Operations Room, it would be awesome if you could please subscribe!

I remember standing on the filght deck of HMS Antrim during one of these raids. I remember watching a Vulcan fly directly overhead. I cant remember now if it was heading North or South. Anyway many, many years later I was at the Vulcan's final appearance at Prestwick airport. Martin Withers was meeting with enthusiastic kids and signing autographs. I stood in line and when my turn came, he saw a considerably older fan, who didn't want an autograph. I said to him "I was on the Antrim and you flew right over my head" He said "And"? I replied "I waved, you didn't wave back" He burst out laughing and said "I was a little busy".

actually Vulcan has enough Fuel for the whole mission, they're refueling tea for the pilots

“We’re off” absolute class. The navigator used a map off the northern hemisphere upside down to calculate the route. True Legends.

Imagine being stationed at that runway and the alarm for enemy planes wakes you up. You get out your bunk, expecting a few harriers from the carrier to harass you, only to find a massive bomber has flown thousands of miles to wreck your day.

A cool fact, Britain decided to purchase every single Exocet missile on the market just to stop Argentina from purchasing them

This was such a British operation. Totally under-equipped and relying on one good old boy to make it through. I picture them twirling their mustache and drinking tea on the Vulcan.

There's a certain Britishness to the whole. "We don't have enough fuel." "Let's turn back, then." "No, we've got a runway to destroy."

Truly one of the most ridiculous and suicidal missions I've ever heard that actually succeeded.

I was stationed at RAF Alconbury at the time of the war. Every morning, we'd receive classified briefings on what was happening. It was fun going home after shift, turning on the BBC, and seeing how wrong they got their stories.

I was the Wireless Operator on Ascension Island during the raid. There were a few mess-ups with planes not using the correct callsigns as went into a new day (cryptography etc). Which led to the radio calls for air to air refuelling by the Vulcans to be ignored. I was sworn at by an incredibly angry Vulcan pilot when he landed, but I was backed up the RN operations director who tore the pilot off a strip for forgetting to update the callsigns. Like everything else in real life things don't go to plan. One thing stuck out in my mind was extremely excited senior RAF officer hugging the crew of the Vulcans as they came into the Operations room (portacabin). It was in hindsight extremely brave of Vulcan crews and very British in its let's give it a go attitude.

In operation Black Buck Six, one vulcan broke his fueling nose and was forced to land in Rio here in Brazil. You can find pictures of the pilots enjoying the night in the city together with the Brazilian pilots who intercepted them with F5s. Better than drifting in a inflatable boat at the Atlantic Ocean.

The fuel problem was twofold... (for Black Buck 1 only). 1/ All the aircraft flew in formation at the same altitude, which meant that the Vulcan was not flying at it's most fuel efficient altitude. and.. 2/ The Vulcan was kept constantly topped up which meant that it was flying at maximum weight for most of the way. ( More weight means that more fuel is required). This was immediately realised and was corrected for the later Black Buck missions. Having said that a good, accurate, and informative video clip! .

British stiff upper lip: Chaps, We may not have any fuel but on the bright side it means we're lighter.

No wonder they were running short on fuel, they forgot to account for the weight of the balls of steel of the pilots (all of them)... ;-)

this is why when i went threw training in the British army my section comander always told us " this is the British army and its a small badly equipped army for a reason. it forces you to do alot more with alot less and hence makes you a superior warrior the war only stops when we run out of hot water coffee and tea"

The amazement and dedication of the RAF pilots didn't just stop here. I was stationed on the Falklands shortly after the war to build the runway (as well as other tasks), which was still only big enough for a Hercules c130 to land, carrying military equipment and our letters from home. Two Hercules would set off from ascension and the first Hercules would use half its fuel then refuel the second before turning back. However, the first Hercules still couldn't make it to the Falklands, so a Victor bomber would then refuel the Hercules for a second time. The problem was, the Victors slowest speed was still faster than the Hercules fastest speed, so both planes had to climb to a set height then go into a dive as they refuelled (it's called 'tobogganing). The pilots use to say that they felt as if the Hercules would shake apart, and they did that three times a week until the runway was built to be able to land bigger aircraft some months later.

That is the most British thing ever. An absurdly impractical and dangerous effort for a task way over their heads that, somehow, works.

I saw an interview with that guy on a cable TV show... He's totally straight during the whole thing, but the things he's saying are unbelievable... It'd been ten years, since they had done a single flight, of mid air refueling... they dragged the equipment out of the back of old hangars were it was buried... then they ran practice flights every day, trying to re-learn how to do it..... Then the flight back, the way he told the story, was unintentionally hilarious, and breathtaking... Very calmly, he says "Well, it'd been at least a decade, of training flights, and I literally never saw the fuel gauge below a half, at any moment... Now here we were, on fumes, wondering, does this gauge even work, when it's this low?? Is there any reserve built into this thing???" I remember just shaking my head and laughing at the TV screen, like, are you kidding??? omg. And then the rescue flight turns back due to low fuel... Unreal... I just found your channel. You do a great job on these. These are very well done, and very good.

The logistical minutiae is so often overlooked but the importance of it's success is beautifully illustrated here.

The planners of this mission obviously stayed awake during math class.

I never watched a video of little jets moving on a map so intensely as I did this one. Riveting description and one hell of an operation.

Who ever dreamed up the deck-shuffling refuel was some kind of Rubic's Cube logistics genius. The last minute swap of fuel between tankers was also a grand exhibition of intelligence, perseverance, and adaptation under duress.

One of the best visual explanations I’ve ever seen of the raid , thanks

Having suffered a crippling recession in the 1970's Britain's military was in sad shape. It's amazing they were able to do this.

I remember the mission but had no idea what a pain in the ass it was. The Falkland War was the first conflict that I watched unfold on television.

If Operation Black Buck 1 could be compared with any other mission, I'd put it in the same bracket as the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in 1942. Both involved theoretically near-impossible expenditures of resources with the same high level of risk versus reward - the the case of the Doolittle Raid, the risk was of losing the USS Hornet, one of only three US fleet carriers in the Pacific at the time, which made it *almost* indispensable. However, the reward for the risk of the Doolittle Raid would be the inflicting of a massive shock on the Japanese high command - psychological rather than physical damage, since the boast in Imperial Japan at the time was that the home islands were inviolable. Having sixteen B25s turn up seemingly out of nowhere to drop bombs on a totally unprepared Japan was a massive humiliation for a race of people for whom pride and 'face' were integral. The damage to Japanese pride far outweighed the physical damage the bombers inflicted, and all of the bombers were lost after running out of fuel. In an attempt to put a brave face on the debacle, the Japanese propagandists tried to pass it off as the 'Do-Nothing Raid' but, in fact, they were shocked to the core. Likewise, the Argentines tried to present Operation Black Buck 1 as a pinprick at the end of a massive expenditure of resources. They tried to point and laugh at the single bomb crater in Stanley's runway and suggest that, as all the other bombs missed the target, the raid was a failure. The book on the raid, 'Vulcan 607', makes clear the RAF's objective was 'runway cutting' - bisecting the runway and halving its length - rather than the wholesale destruction of the island's main lifeline. The objective all along was to place one bomb on the runway to damage it and Operation Black Buck 1 succeeded in doing just that - damaging the runway just enough to deny its use for fast jets. The Argentine engineers patched the crater within 24 hours, hence their belief the raid was an expensive failure. However, they botched the job. The first aircraft to touch down at Stanley after the raid - an Argentine C130 Hercules - ran over the filled-in crater on its landing roll and the crew discovered in doing so that the runway was no longer flat and level because the Hercules slewed off the runway and ended up on the grass. It was quickly realised that any attempt to land or take off with a Mirage or Skyhawk on such a surface would end catastrophically. Black Buck 1 had achieved its objective. Only after the war was over was the crater properly repaired.

The Vulcan is my favorite non-USAF aircraft. Its kind of sad it couldn't me modernized like the B-52.

Isn't this the mission where the guys scavenged parts for the bomber from museums and junkyards and even one part was an ashtray? Gotta give it to the British, they go for it and usually hit it for six as they say. Salutes from the United States Navy 🇺🇸💞🇬🇧

I was stationed in Vegas during the 70's and we hosted the Britts for a joint test force and they brought a fleet of Vulcans that we refueld in the air several times during the operation.

There is no aircraft that sounds quite as incredible as the Vulcan. I've been fortunate to see it fly a dozen or so times before being completely retired

And the crew played Chariots of Fire on the way back home.

thanks for explaining the refueling brackets as you did, having read Vulcan 607 i never understood how the refueling worked until now .. thanks again

After one of the Black Buck missions, the Vulcan XM597 was on its way back to Ascension when it had a problem in its aerial refueling system and was unable to refuel. RAF's contigency plan was for the planes to try an emergency landing in Brazil if such situations happened. So the crew kept radio silence and headed to Rio de Janeiro, where they would only contact the Brazilian authorities once they found the closest airport. However, they were spotted by the radars as soon as they entered Brazilian airspace, so the Brazilian Air Force sent two F-5 Tigers to intercept the bomber, the Vulcan's crew was forced to break radio silence and inform them about the fuel problem. Then the bomber was escorted to the Galeão International Airport, where it was grounded and its missile AGM-45 was apprehended. The Brazilian Government only allowed the XM597 to fly back to UK seven days later and under the condition that it wouldn't be used in further missions against Argentina during the war.

They played Chariot of Fire cassette in the Vulcan after the bomb run. Truly classic

This was a brilliant presentation and demonstration of this epic mission. I live up the road from RAF Waddington and see XM607 parked up by the A15. My Dad, who sadly recently died, used to run the Royal Engineer Field Support unit in the 80's and 90's. At one point the base got hold of the last Victor to refuel the Vulcan and my Dad's unit built a second platform so the two aircraft were situated next to each other as a memorial. But some pencil pushing spoil-sport in Whitehall said they weren't allowed two gate guards, so the Victor was towed off and dismantled. Fortunately my Dad was able to salvage a couple of cockpit displays for me from the Victor, one of which I still have to this day His unit shared a hanger with XH558 when they first arrived and I got to often sit in the Vulcan whenever I visited Dad at work. Such a special aircraft

These were incredible examples of professionalism and bravery. Not enough can be said about the maintainers restoring systems. One part of a refueling system was found being used as an ashtray in a ready room!

I know that it's just a map animation but boy that was intense

“We’re off then...” That’s the kind of thing heroes say when it looks like loss is on the horizon but they have a different vision.

In the early 1970s, I lived in Bellevue Nebraska...the then-home of SAC headquarters at Offutt AFB, and got to see lots of different aircraft at their annual air shows. One of the most amazing ones I ever saw was a Vulcan bomber. With their delta wing design, they could come over at such a low speed that they seemed to vibrate to keep from falling out of the air, then make a turn a few miles south of the field and come back over at close to 500 mph and everything in town would vibrate. :-D

one of the funniest fact's I learnt was that a mechanical part essential for the mission was sitting in the staff room been used as an ash tray ha ha ha good ol Britz!

We like to make fun of the Brits, but it's all in good fun and we deserve all the sass back. Y'all have some serious guts. Love from Ohio!

I remember a Vulcan flying up NE Valley, Dunedin, NZ... Not sure when, but probably the 70s. Absolutely no doubt due to it's shape. In camouflage colours, it looked like a giant moth.

In September 1981, Argentina actually applied to the UK Government to buy an unspecified number of Vulcans. The export of a single aircraft was approved, but intra-government correspondence at the time noted its potential suitability for bombing the Falklands. Three months later, Argentina invaded the Falklands and the sale was off.

There is a Vulcan at the castle air force base museum in Atwater California USA...despite its coming close to bein obsolete at the time of the raid you cant ignore its beauty..well done chaps.

I remember a sign up against the Exocet missile on display at the manufacturer's stand at the Farnborough Air Show after the Falklands War had ended. It read: "Combat Proven"

That was the most labour and resource costly 1000lb bomb ever. Well done! Thanks for explaining the refueling sequence so well. I had no idea what it took. Too bad they didn't have two birds on target for that first run.

Operation "Keep calm and CRIKEY THERE'S NOT ENOUGH PETROL IN THE TANKER"

I live within 2 miles of xm607 vulcan sat next to the runway of raf waddington amazing to see evertime I go past 👍

Black buck missions were actually several,this was just the 1st,the succeeding ones were anti radar. They just ddn't recieve the same publicity even after the war.

Love this story... the absolute bloody-mindedness of the British is inspiring. The subtle subtext: 'We went through all this effort to put conventional bombs onto a runway, do you want to gamble that we couldn't put a nuclear bomb into Buenos Aires?'

To modern military minds, this seems like such an improvised, 'poor man's strike' while World War II Lancaster bomber crews would be amazed by the capabilities of the planes involved in this raid.

The noise of Vulcan XX558 on maximum thrust pulling up from low level after completing its bombing run to turn about and head home must have been truly awesome.. Proud to be British.

You can actually see XM607, it’s positioned near the entrance to RAF Waddington on the A15 into Lincoln.

You have NO IDEA how long this distance is. If you're an American, it's like flying from NYC to Los Angeles, back to NYC and back to Denver in the middle of the night, over open ocean. And I thought my career washing dishes on an aircraft carrier was dangerous 😆🇺🇸💞🇬🇧

I believe this was the entire British Ariel Refuelling fleet. This was also one of the greatest bombing runs in history.

Just before the Vulcan came near the Falklands a jump jet flew near Stanley to make sure the argies had the radar on as they expected an attack. But not the Vulcan attack. This enabled the Vulcan to lock on to the signal given off by the enemy radar.

I remember we loaded the 1,000lb bombs on a train at the ROF depot - they were placed on the floor of the wagon because there was no time to crate them up. The train started off and I could hear the bombs clanging like bells. We had to stop the train and we fitted wedges between them the bombs. Glad to know they arrived at there final destination!

I've never been so hooked on a story of little plane icons and a low res map.

I once attended a talk at an airshow hosted by one of the crewmembers of XM607, sadly I couldn't remember who it was, but it wasn't Martin Withers. Really good talk and I learnt so much. His talk was definitely the highlight of that Air show as sadly it was in poor conditions and 90% of the flying plan was cancelled due to extremely poor weather. His talk was brilliant though and totally worth it.

My uncle was the Air Electronics Officer on the Primary Crew for this mission, ironically his crew had flown out on XM607 but switched aircraft as they had problems with the fuel tank. He got to in on the second raid.

'This mission seems to be impossible.' 'Well, let's do it anyway.' The book Vulcan 607 is well worth a read.

Absolutely outstanding show of British Grit, Determination and ingenuity.

They found part of the vulcan refueler probe in a officers mess, which was used as a astray.

And the RAF learned their lesson and maintain a fleet of long range bombers to this day.

SUPERBLY EXPLAINED/ puts the whole op into clear and precise context. well done. i only made it to ascension, and saw them off....brave job.

Fantastic video, those animations were very helpful to track the complicated refueling procedure.

That was by far the best description of Black Buck One I've ever heard!!! Liked and subbed instantly!!!! Well Done Mate!!!!

For me it's always this raid and HMS Venture's sinking of U-846 that show what people can do with some graph paper and pencil!

Excellent video, straight to the point and very detailed and informative. I'll spread the word around and disable my adblocker for you. Thank you for your time and effort.

Can warmly recommend The Fighterpilot podcast which has a recent interview with the Vulcan pilot that did the mission

I was in Lincolnshire at the time and remember Vulcans changing their flying routine. For a while a singleton would leave Waddington and later run back up along the edge, making a low pass across the station with an explosion to mark it's passing. It was clear that someone was soon going to be served notice that they were not out of reach. In due course a heavily laden departure was heard and then seen climbing out on an unusual southerly heading. On TV the band of the Paratroop Regiment had played "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" as they marched down to the docks.

Amazing work! Looking forward to next video :)

This is an exceptional video. Well done. Some very interesting information, and the visual aids are really amazing.

You make the most incredible content. Thank you so much for the evident work you invest.

Although I’m an American, hearing about Britain curb stomping Argentina brings a smile to my face

Christ this would make a sick war film

This is brilliant! A beautiful story and an incredible act of bravery & perseverance. It's an extraordinary feat and an important moment in the dedication of the crews & the RAF's storied history. Very Well Done! Thank you for posting. Properly earned Like and Sub.

Thx My friend died in the Falklands. He'd have loved this. However he'd have been disappointed; with some of the ignorant disrespectful comments here!

As you rightly say, I think that was a demonstration to Argentina that we could reach them if necessary. The RAF’s day’s or should I say nights of wrecking enemy cities was over but they still must have had a formidable reputation.

When you are waiting for the *DITCH DITCH DITCH!* from the pilot but you see the fuel going up. _Happy tea noises_

Another amazing video, edge of my seat the entire time. Keep up the great work!

Your narration is crazy good. The music also adds a touch of suspense. What is funny, is that I realize (at one point) the outcome is already made. Well done on you.

This is simply amazing. I never realised just how complex it was.

Looking at this video (and similar ones), one can appreciate why the USAF still employs huge numbers of KC-135's and KC-10's.

I only found your channel yesterday, you present your info very well and tbh very informative and to the point without being irritating! 👍 I had no idea that you would have to refuel that many times in mid air 😷😮!

Excellent video. I knew about this feat of a mission from a headline level of knowledge. Your animations really bring it to life. Subscribed.

A truly amazing mission. I did not know it involved so many refueling stages and tankers, refueling tankers. And great courage and skill by all involved.

The Avro Vulcan is the RODAN of strategic bombers.

Thank you for your hard work producing these outstanding videos !

Absolutely outstanding effort by the RAF to inflict the first blow in recapturing the Falkland Island and extremely well presented video. 👍

If you look at recent aerial photos of the airport there are a row of craters filled with water on the south west side of the runway.

FAntastic animation, and a couple of details I didn't know about.... how we achieved this is quite astounding, given the complexities and odds stacked against. But we did pull it off.... sadly, those days of bravery are gone, and I have no idea what this country is coming to.... thank you for a splendid account... I loved the background music, in great taste, and it did not distract from the narration.... give you 10 / 10

This video had me on the edge of my seat the first time I watched it a while ago... and the second. Quite the story and achievement. The extremely well put together video helps convey the message too :).. Thank you for staying in "operation"

That is such an amazing story, very well told in your video.

We in Canada were ready to help there!!!

The RAF didn't have a whole lot at their disposal, but just like they've always done- they found a way to go above and beyond their known capabilities. Incredible story. Thank you for sharing.

Refuelling midair, looks damn hard on a good day. This whole operation just blows my mind. The animation is much appreciated.

Just found you TOR, a great set of factual stories told how I like it. The animations are very good and help to understand the scale of ops. Thanks for the great uploads.

Nice graphic! Short, sweet and to the point. There is a 47-minute video called XM607 Falklands' Most Daring Raid that covers the story in more detail, and with personal anecdotes, but for a "CliffsNotes" version, this is good!