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!
Hello sir, love your videos I watch them on my break when at work, you have a very good skill of narrating certain battles in order and consequences of certain events. Keep up the great work! Tom
this is a very informative video, finally I could understand the extremely complicated refueling plan! But I think there are few comments to be made: 1- the runway in Stanley wasn't long enough for high performance fighter/bombers, and the British naval blockade already prevented that the equipment needed to support those fighters could reach the islands. 2- Argentine forces managed to deploy extending plates for the runway, but those were used to create a servicing platform for the Hercules and other transports, allowing faster loading/unloading procedures. The Hercules flights were barely enough to provide for the garrison, there was no room to provide for a fighter squadron with fuel/ammo/spares on top of that. 3- the crater was repaired fairly quickly, and the runway continued to operate until the last day. 4- the were Mirages left to overlook the capital from the very beginning, not because the BB raids. 5- the only success of such missions was the destruction of Skyguard radar, and a huge psychological impact, but not much else. This is a very good analysis on Black Buck, lots of information: www.thinkdefence.co.uk/operation-black-buck/analysis/ cheers!
@@martindione386 One could make similar observations regarding the Doolittle Raid, but very few would claim that it had negligible impact. Sometimes the mere fact that an enemy has the nuts to attempt something so brash is all it takes to force a combatant to reconsider his courses of action.
@@johngalt3568 as I said, it had some material effect and a huge psychological effect, but those missions had two clear objectives: disable/destroy the runway, and the main air surveillance radar, and those were NOT achieved.
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".
I also met him at RIAT one year. He seems genuinely bemused by the attention he gets for what he considers just doing his job! I'm sure the book royalties sooth is objections :D
No wonder that when the drogue(?) snapped they got outta there as fast as they could. But they were kind enough to donate some of their own tea to the leftover tanker👍
It’s said that British pilots can I crease their fuel consumption as much as 10 times when under pressure, much like an afterburner, so that 3 week supply was quickly drained.
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.
no solo fue un bombardeo que fracaso...creo que 3 mas FRACASARON , solo murieron 9 soldados Argentinos y la pista fue operable hasta el fin del conflicto , los Argentino con su creencia que los TOMMYS no reconquistarían las islas Malvinas ...no se prepararon adecuadamente...será la próxima y sin la dama de hierro y que el infierno la tenga bien a resguardo.
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.
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.
you don't seem to appreciate the damage 1000lbs of explosives can do. The rest of the bombs landed on the troops and equipment stations at the airfield.
@@creativeamerican8811 they were officially retired and definitely overloaded. They had no idea how much fuel they would use as it was totally outside anything it had ever done.
HobgoblinUK Honestly it makes me shudder. Not a fan of flying but always say I reckon I’d be ok on a military aircraft outside of combat... just not a fan of commercial air travel, however, the thought of being in that Vulcan flying the length of the Atlantic.. I need someone to hold me... I’ve thought about it too much.
Aaron, it wasn't planned to be suicidal. It was however very risky. If you read Lt. Cmdr Sharkey Wards excellent book "Sea Harrier Over the Falklands", he is very critical of the RAF effort and, with some authority states that the Harriers could have done the job just as well and used literally millions of gallons of fuel less than the seven Black Buck missions consumed. However, the point he seemed to overlook was that because the RAF could bomb that far from home it did make the Argentinians withdraw fighters to protect the mainland, which may well have made a difference but of course we'll never know for sure. In that respect, it was a strategic move that helped to stack the odds as much in the British favour as possible, always a good thing in war.
@@theflyingfool It was in no way suicidal, it was just very risky, like all military missions. The refueling plan was the product of some egg-heads fevered imaginations though!....British pilots don't do suicide missions, they carry out orders.
@@theflyingfool They didn't meant for it to be suicidal, but the level of complexity to pull it off nearly made it so. So many things could go wrong (and did) that nearly resulted in failure.
Its a standard "Do-or-die" attitude common in Europe at that time. Both western nations and the eastern block were standing on the shoulders of the giants their fathers who fought in WW2 were. And they approached any task given as it was the Battle of Britain/Siege of Leningrad itself as they learnt that that is how things are done ... That attitude is of course far gone, bar few exceptions here and there.
The Vulcan that took part in this raid is on display at it’s original home base at RAF Waddington which is just down the road for me. Just shows how innovative the RAF are. This was widely considered an impossible task but they still carried it out. Makes me proud to be British and can’t wait to join the RAF
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! .
Interesting point, well made. I forget which black buck mission it was, but the vulcans refuelling probe snapped completely! and had to divert to Rio de Janerio (I think).... with a live shrike missile that had failed to jettison. WHOOPS!!
Not only was it a bombing that failed...I think 3 more FAILED, only 9 Argentine soldiers died and the runway was operable until the end of the conflict, the Argentines with their belief that the TOMMYS would not reconquer the Malvinas Islands...I don't know They prepared properly...she will be next and without the iron lady and may hell keep her safe.
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.
It's a shame the BBC didn't think before letting slip that 2 Para were attacking Goose Green a few hours before they were due to. Whoever made that decision should've been shot.
not realy the air strip was repaired and operated til the last day o the conflict. the susecuent operations whit anti radiaton misisles have more impact.
@@anuvisraa5786 I'm talking about the success of the logistical side to complete the mission in this case. The impact of the raid itself was pretty minimal you're right but it did result in a withdrawal of the fast jets back to the Argentinian mainland so there was some benefit.
Besides, it was one massive muscle flex by the UK that certainly degraded Argentina's confidence in the war. I thinkt he political repercussions had much more impact than the physical ones.
@Real Thailand Once again for the intellectually impaired, I'm talking about the success of the logistical operation so the mission could be completed which was a remarkable achievement given the resources available. Learn to read.
@Real Thailand The aim was to get the bomber to the Falkland Islands so it could deliver its payload,and back in one piece. This was successfully achieved so clearly it was a logistical success. What are you not understanding here?
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 emergency landing did cause some problems, as the Vulcan in question still had an American anti-radar Shrike missile on board. Officially the USA wasn't supporting the British and reports of British bombers armed with new, high-tech American weapons could've caused issues. I believe the Brazilians kept the whole thing quite in exchange for free spare parts for their British helicopters they had purchased earlier.
That was the story put out at the time. The story around the RAF was that Britain had pre-positioned a Shape (Nuke) in the region. In either case the Brazilian government refused to let the aircraft, and whatever it was carrying, leave until the MoD agreed to purchase the Tuccano aircraft. An awful aircraft that needed extensive modifications before the RAF could use it.
@Vlodec Apart from the fact one ship can't be in two places, what we have are _vastly_ more capable than what we had back then. If we sent our fleet back in time is likely that this entire mission could have been completed with ⅓ of the capital ships we took, just a single Type 45 can defend vast stretches of sea against ship, aircraft and missile attacks. Combined with a carrier with CAP and crows nest capability, nothing gets near.
@@gbonkers666 But it did teach us a harsh lesson about CIWS. So sometimes you have to take what you can from a bad situation. If you look at ships _everybody_ build now, it's all about layered anti-air defense, CIWS, point defence missiles, fleet air defence and networked sensors and fire control. Just a single Type 45 now provides all of that on it's own, more than a Type 42 and Type 22 combined.
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.
I was a navigator on those C-130 tankers. To get the freighter CMk1 to Stanley took 2 refuellings. Initially we used a Victor for the first bracket and the KMk1 Herc for the second, and eventually 2 C-130 tankers. The mission to do the second bracket took 17 hours out and back. Once the Stanley runway had been extended and covered in AM2 we took the tanker Hercs down to the Islands to support the Harriers and F-4s, but there were no larger aircraft in the inventory back then. Eventually when Mount Pleasant was built in '87 the Tristars took over the Air Bridge and didn't need refuelling, but we didn't buy the Tristars until a few years afterthe war.
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.
The runway was repaired within hours, but was camouflaged to look busted during the day, and operational at night. The last C-130 flew out of it in the early hours of June 14th. The runway wasn't extended, reinforced, nor used for Mirages ever, which was very idiotic.
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.
I remember watching a documentary about this and the scramble to rebuild the in-flight refueling system. Apparently they were missing a critical valve component and were trying to work out how fast they could fabricate a new one when one of the engineers found the part being used as an ashtray in the crew mess.....
When asked to do something your aircraft was not designed for. And when working with what you've got. The armed forces do seem to rise to the challenge. I suppose operating as the RAF does, punching well above its weight and doing so with limited budgets. Working around problems is the norm.
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"
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
@@dukedepommefrites8779 In hindsight cruise missiles would've been the best weapon to use on Port Stanley. 6 cruise missiles would've put the runway out of action for much longer, and without endangering friendlies.
@@killman369547 It seems like that could be tricky as cruise missiles use side-scanning terrain radar for their navigation. They'd have a lot of featureless sea to cross before fixing on the island, and then possibly not have enough maneuverability to turn inland to hit the runway (not sure of the scale from the video.) I can't remember the operation, but I've seen another video where cruise missiles had to take a circuitous route around a flat expanse of desert so they would have some mountains to follow to the target.
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.
You've got wrong information, the crater wasn't patched, the opposite, the argentinians threw more mud over the crater to make it look bigger because they knew that the british were looking with satellites. The runway at Stanley was used by the argentinian aircrafts till the end of the war, with the last Hercules taking off in the middle of the night during the Tumbledown combat was going on, so the runway wasn´t destroyed. Plus, the argentinians gave up the idea of landing combat aircrafts in the runway BEFORE this bombing, in april. The effect was psychological. The fear of another Vulcan bombing was constant. And This was the only succesfull Black Buck mission, and it failed to actually destroy the runway...
@@sanignacio1999 My primary source for information on the raid was Rowland White's book, "Vulcan 607". He talked extensively to the RAF personnel who planned and executed Black Buck 1 and it was made clear that destroying the runway wasn't the objective - cutting it in half was the plan. They loaded the Vulcans with leftover WW2-vintage bombs and planned to drop them at an angle across the runway in the hopes of putting at least one of them onto it and rendering it inoperable for fast jets. They didn't know what Argentina's plans were for the runway at Stanley, only that it was the only runway in the vicinity that theoretically COULD accommodate Mirages and Skyhawks. So the plan was to shorten it by half and that's what they did.
@@elennapointer701 It was a success for the british, but did nothing against the argentines. Why they didn't even try to extend the runway before this bombing raid is puzzling. It was fully operational at night until the end if the war though.
Correct. The fact that all dog fights took place with fast jets coming from the mainland tells us what we need to know. Much further to travel and more fuel burned giving far less time to possibly dogfight and use your gas-guzzling afterburners, fewer sorties per day also as further to fly.
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.
@@Dave5843-d9m they did but one of the Vulcans had to turn back when the cabin wouldn't pressurize. I remember when I was a kid i went to an air show here in Winnipeg and the RAF showed up with one or their Vulcans. Blew my mind mind when it flew low altitude over the crowd. That wing. The size. The noise! I never forgot it. As I think about it i imagine they could never get that close to a crowd nowadays. My all-time favorite plane.
From the snags that occurred in the later stages of the outbound flight, particularly the electrical storm, & a snapped refuelling drogue it looks like the abort of the 2nd Vulcan was fortuitous to getting the single Vulcan onto target & safely returned. It was remarkable that the Vulcan wasn't hit by an Argentine air defense battery concentrated on a single aircraft. Even more remarkable was the slide rule planning (without sophisticated computing aids in 1982) to achieve all the many buddy-buddy, & bomber refuelling contacts necessary to get the Vulcan to its target. A terrific achievement by the Victor Operations planners at HQ No 1 (Bomber) Group
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
Same here mate, first of all you get that quad bass rumble tearing your very molecules apart as it releases the brakes, then as it glides past, that distinctive blowing over the top of a bottle sound, howling as it screams skyward. Inspiring stuff. I remember it's final RAF service year, when they really opened up the engines and threw it around like a fighter one last time. I thought it would be the last time I saw her. Until she was restored and flew much more conservative displays for a few years. Still, that sound. Never forgotten. I would love to have experienced a whole squadron taking off.
@@rowgliLikely be extinct too. If a whole squadron took off, there probably wouldn't be a UK for them to return to. Some things should remain wishes. ;)
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!
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
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.
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.
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 think you're right about the ashtray. It is said there was a conversation between the brits and the Americans who's airbase on ascension the mission was run from. The fuel was supplied through the Americans and when the brits gave them their requirements the American commander said " you can't possibly use that much fuel" the reply was "we're going to give it a bloody good try" I can't be certain it is true but i hope it is. And for what it is worth. The Americans did help out logistically with this mission so respect to you.
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.
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.
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.
@b52gf16c i have not heard of that. However the base was still in operation at that time. Far as the museum's existence im not sure. Will look into that. Very interesting. Cheers
@b52gf16c yes it is..i was there 6 months ago with my grandson. It never gets boring there. I posted a few vids of my visit on my channel if you care to check them out. Thank you for the information.
I remember reading in the local paper, during the conflict, about the removal of the part from the Castle museum Vulcan. Don't remember seeing it in the national news.
This is accurate. The Vulcan there was on display already in 1982. Castle AFB was still active. The British removed the refueling probe and sent it back home for some reason. Visitors weren’t told why. So spare parts from a museum in the USA were flying in the Falklands War. They gave the probe back at a later date.
I was in Olinda Brazil and saw two Vulcans roaring over that day. For a 11 year old boy and fanatic for war jets it was quite a scene. Thanks for posting this video.
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.
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.
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
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.
@Hammer 001 Taking fast jets off the islands is effective. Taking out following radar stations, then a foll up bombing strike on the Argentine garrison was entirely effective. British servicemen didn't die from potential action from those assets, its a complete success of tax payers money.
@@1993Crag Only one radar station was eliminated in the succeeding Black Buck raids. Two Black Buck raids were scrubbed, Black Bucks Two and Seven did not hit their targets (the bombs on Seven had not been fused correctly anyway); Five only did minor damage to their long-range radar and Six failed to acquire it and so only destroyed a single fire-control radar. Furthermore, Six was diverted to Brazil due to a refueling failure and nearly caused a political incident involving an American missile still aboard the plane. Black Buck One was successful, as it achieved its objective, but I would argue the subsequent Black Bucks were not worthwhile given the Herculean effort to use bombers on the edge of retirement in a mission the RAF never planned for, and only existed to give the RAF an opportunity to participate in the conflict and to improve morale.
I've got nothing against the British over the falklands war. The only thing that makes me scratch my head is why not just use cruise missiles to hit port stanley instead of risking a bomber and crew? This seems like an awful lot of work for one bomb hit.
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.
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.
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.
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"
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!
Thank you for such an excellent video. I've seen this story told a number of times but to actually see the graphic representations of all the aeroplanes involved in that mission is truly amazing, it's such an eye-opener regarding the distances and logistics. I am incredibly fortunate to have seen the XH558 at RIAT a few years ago and I think there's something rather awesome about four engined Avro's, such as the Vulcan or the Lancaster. As a slight side note, I was recently flying from Dublin to London and discovered the aeroplane I was on was a BAE146, AKA Avro RJ45, and I mused to myself it was nice that Avro were still flying four engined aeroplanes over the skies of Europe! ;-)
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!
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.
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.
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!
God bless the men and women of the Royal Airforce. You make me so proud to be British. only the RAF with all the odds stacked heavily against them, would show what true courage and raw bravery was and is all about. I remember when the war broke out volunteering to join the Royal Navy. I never got to join as it happened but my heart and hopes were solidly with the British armed forces at that time. Many years later in Australia, I made the acquaintance of a man, Phil Baker who was an engineer on board the Canberra. He recalled that when they anchored off the Falklands, they were told they were to decoy for the Exocet missiles and to protect the carrier fleet. And they were all made to write out their last wills and testaments as they were no expected to survive. Shortly after, the Ship Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet as the Argentines initially thought she was one of the carriers... I cant recall too much now. But i felt an immersive pleasure knowing that once again the RAF and the Royal Navy, along with the SAS Royal Marine Commandos were doing their stuff to once again show that Britain may have it’s challenges But don’t mess with us. Because we will come out to play and win!
That for Sure! But take Your Time....Word can wait a bit for it :) I am also passionate about aviation and history. I am also a modeler, through my models I learn about the history, events and people who created it. I invite you to check out with my channel th-cam.com/users/mmmodelworkshop . And of course to subscribe and share. All The best from Poland. Keep doing great job!
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.
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.
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.
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 😆🇺🇸💞🇬🇧
Beautiful- in the way that any bold and complicated plan that works by the skin of its teeth is beautiful. I really appreciate the graphical breakdown here which underlines how much of the mission was carried out on the edge of failure, and indeed the very edge of possibility. Yet that single bomb mid-runway made it all worthwhile, delivering the message "The British are coming and we mean it..." psyching the enemy out nicely right up front.
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.
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Hello sir, love your videos I watch them on my break when at work, you have a very good skill of narrating certain battles in order and consequences of certain events. Keep up the great work! Tom
this is a very informative video, finally I could understand the extremely complicated refueling plan! But I think there are few comments to be made:
1- the runway in Stanley wasn't long enough for high performance fighter/bombers, and the British naval blockade already prevented that the equipment needed to support those fighters could reach the islands.
2- Argentine forces managed to deploy extending plates for the runway, but those were used to create a servicing platform for the Hercules and other transports, allowing faster loading/unloading procedures. The Hercules flights were barely enough to provide for the garrison, there was no room to provide for a fighter squadron with fuel/ammo/spares on top of that.
3- the crater was repaired fairly quickly, and the runway continued to operate until the last day.
4- the were Mirages left to overlook the capital from the very beginning, not because the BB raids.
5- the only success of such missions was the destruction of Skyguard radar, and a huge psychological impact, but not much else.
This is a very good analysis on Black Buck, lots of information:
www.thinkdefence.co.uk/operation-black-buck/analysis/
cheers!
Thanks for the hard work. It's truly appreciated.
@@martindione386 One could make similar observations regarding the Doolittle Raid, but very few would claim that it had negligible impact. Sometimes the mere fact that an enemy has the nuts to attempt something so brash is all it takes to force a combatant to reconsider his courses of action.
@@johngalt3568 as I said, it had some material effect and a huge psychological effect, but those missions had two clear objectives: disable/destroy the runway, and the main air surveillance radar, and those were NOT achieved.
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".
I also met him at RIAT one year. He seems genuinely bemused by the attention he gets for what he considers just doing his job!
I'm sure the book royalties sooth is objections :D
The question is did you forgive him Micky? 🙂
@Nick Maclachlan Smac 19/22 pal.
Absolute class 😄
Brilliant story, thankful to say i were able to walk around XH558 that day, I recorded the sad departure if you want to have a watch 😪
“We’re off” absolute class. The navigator used a map off the northern hemisphere upside down to calculate the route. True Legends.
LTrain 45 the bit that says Northern Hemisphere.
LTrain 45 🤦♂️
You can guarantee his exact words were “fuck it, we’re off.” Like deciding to go to the zoo, even though it’s raining 😂
Not having any of that foreign map nonsense. A sketch of the channel should do just fine. We'll wing it from there. 🧐
It's always raining.
actually Vulcan has enough Fuel for the whole mission, they're refueling tea for the pilots
No wonder that when the drogue(?) snapped they got outta there as fast as they could. But they were kind enough to donate some of their own tea to the leftover tanker👍
Nonsense, no British unit ever goes into battle without 3 weeks of tea 🤣🤣
It’s said that British pilots can I crease their fuel consumption as much as 10 times when under pressure, much like an afterburner, so that 3 week supply was quickly drained.
@@FirstLadyDonald maybe the RAF Typhoon is really the Typhoo
@@pauldilworth3297 😂😂😂😂 well played sir. I doff my cap
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.
Thank you sir. The angry Vulcan pilot wouldn't have been John Reeve would it?
no solo fue un bombardeo que fracaso...creo que 3 mas FRACASARON , solo murieron 9 soldados Argentinos y la pista fue operable hasta el fin del conflicto , los Argentino con su creencia que los TOMMYS no reconquistarían las islas Malvinas ...no se prepararon adecuadamente...será la próxima y sin la dama de hierro y que el infierno la tenga bien a resguardo.
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.
Polishing off a crumpet as they hit the ingress point
Tea indeed! Vulcans and Victors all had hot water facilities!
@@callumr1998 even my old 432 afv had boiling vessel so we could 'brew up' when we were on operations or exercise :)
@@yamabushi170 British kit wouldn't be proper without a brew ;)
@@callumr1998 Gotta love our allies the UK...taking care of business and looking good at the same time.
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.
With the Argentine commanders worrying, “The Americans flew bombers off an aircraft carrier early in WWII. What have the British learned from that?”
I'd be unimpressed that a single 30 yo bomber is all they could manage.
And it managed to put a single bomb on the runway. Terrifying, just horrific.
@@elguapo1690 I can't imagine being so dense that I miss the message this raid sends.
you don't seem to appreciate the damage 1000lbs of explosives can do. The rest of the bombs landed on the troops and equipment stations at the airfield.
One of the best visual explanations I’ve ever seen of the raid , thanks
vqey2
Those Vulcan bombers were ancient even in 1982. Pretty sure one of them was fixed using parts from a bicycle.. no joke.
@@creativeamerican8811 they were officially retired and definitely overloaded.
They had no idea how much fuel they would use as it was totally outside anything it had ever done.
HobgoblinUK
Honestly it makes me shudder. Not a fan of flying but always say I reckon I’d be ok on a military aircraft outside of combat... just not a fan of commercial air travel, however, the thought of being in that Vulcan flying the length of the Atlantic.. I need someone to hold me... I’ve thought about it too much.
Truly one of the most ridiculous and suicidal missions I've ever heard that actually succeeded.
Ummmm.... Doolittle Raid
Aaron, it wasn't planned to be suicidal. It was however very risky. If you read Lt. Cmdr Sharkey Wards excellent book "Sea Harrier Over the Falklands", he is very critical of the RAF effort and, with some authority states that the Harriers could have done the job just as well and used literally millions of gallons of fuel less than the seven Black Buck missions consumed. However, the point he seemed to overlook was that because the RAF could bomb that far from home it did make the Argentinians withdraw fighters to protect the mainland, which may well have made a difference but of course we'll never know for sure. In that respect, it was a strategic move that helped to stack the odds as much in the British favour as possible, always a good thing in war.
@@theflyingfool It was in no way suicidal, it was just very risky, like all military missions. The refueling plan was the product of some egg-heads fevered imaginations though!....British pilots don't do suicide missions, they carry out orders.
@@cmbell73 Yeap that was pretty insane too. But based on technical complexity this mission takes the prize.
@@theflyingfool They didn't meant for it to be suicidal, but the level of complexity to pull it off nearly made it so. So many things could go wrong (and did) that nearly resulted in failure.
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."
And, that was the "B" team!.......We don't fuck about......
Lol, yeah but that badass attitude was completely fucked by the tanker crew who noped out on them at the last minute.
Its a standard "Do-or-die" attitude common in Europe at that time. Both western nations and the eastern block were standing on the shoulders of the giants their fathers who fought in WW2 were. And they approached any task given as it was the Battle of Britain/Siege of Leningrad itself as they learnt that that is how things are done ...
That attitude is of course far gone, bar few exceptions here and there.
The Vulcan that took part in this raid is on display at it’s original home base at RAF Waddington which is just down the road for me. Just shows how innovative the RAF are. This was widely considered an impossible task but they still carried it out. Makes me proud to be British and can’t wait to join the RAF
More of a 'Actually nah fuck it, we'll figure it out'
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!
.
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Interesting point, well made. I forget which black buck mission it was, but the vulcans refuelling probe snapped completely! and had to divert to Rio de Janerio (I think).... with a live shrike missile that had failed to jettison. WHOOPS!!
@@justandy333 we are coming in armed!
Very good points. "Thats gonna be a regression for Mission Planning" lol. "You're gonna have to see this ride again."
Not only was it a bombing that failed...I think 3 more FAILED, only 9 Argentine soldiers died and the runway was operable until the end of the conflict, the Argentines with their belief that the TOMMYS would not reconquer the Malvinas Islands...I don't know They prepared properly...she will be next and without the iron lady and may hell keep her safe.
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.
The BBC getting their stories completely wrong doesn't sound likely at all, therefore I disbelieve this story..... 🤣
The BBC gave a news report on TV that Vulcans could reach the Fslklands just before they took off from Ascension.
It's a shame the BBC didn't think before letting slip that 2 Para were attacking Goose Green a few hours before they were due to. Whoever made that decision should've been shot.
@@hairydave82 when we had treason laws as well ...
@@wayneabel5421 Margaret Thatcher: "It's treason then." *pulls out lightsaber*
The logistical minutiae is so often overlooked but the importance of it's success is beautifully illustrated here.
not realy the air strip was repaired and operated til the last day o the conflict. the susecuent operations whit anti radiaton misisles have more impact.
@@anuvisraa5786 I'm talking about the success of the logistical side to complete the mission in this case. The impact of the raid itself was pretty minimal you're right but it did result in a withdrawal of the fast jets back to the Argentinian mainland so there was some benefit.
Besides, it was one massive muscle flex by the UK that certainly degraded Argentina's confidence in the war. I thinkt he political repercussions had much more impact than the physical ones.
@Real Thailand Once again for the intellectually impaired, I'm talking about the success of the logistical operation so the mission could be completed which was a remarkable achievement given the resources available. Learn to read.
@Real Thailand The aim was to get the bomber to the Falkland Islands so it could deliver its payload,and back in one piece. This was successfully achieved so clearly it was a logistical success. What are you not understanding here?
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 emergency landing did cause some problems, as the Vulcan in question still had an American anti-radar Shrike missile on board. Officially the USA wasn't supporting the British and reports of British bombers armed with new, high-tech American weapons could've caused issues. I believe the Brazilians kept the whole thing quite in exchange for free spare parts for their British helicopters they had purchased earlier.
That was the story put out at the time.
The story around the RAF was that Britain had pre-positioned a Shape (Nuke) in the region.
In either case the Brazilian government refused to let the aircraft, and whatever it was carrying, leave until the MoD agreed to purchase the Tuccano aircraft. An awful aircraft that needed extensive modifications before the RAF could use it.
A cool fact, Britain decided to purchase every single Exocet missile on the market just to stop Argentina from purchasing them
@JuanOber 2018 just like argentina
yes, and at every opportunity shrink her navy to the point at which it is now a shadow of its former self..logic is not a strong point in the MOD
@Vlodec
Apart from the fact one ship can't be in two places, what we have are _vastly_ more capable than what we had back then.
If we sent our fleet back in time is likely that this entire mission could have been completed with ⅓ of the capital ships we took, just a single Type 45 can defend vast stretches of sea against ship, aircraft and missile attacks.
Combined with a carrier with CAP and crows nest capability, nothing gets near.
Still didn't help with Sheffield.
@@gbonkers666
But it did teach us a harsh lesson about CIWS.
So sometimes you have to take what you can from a bad situation.
If you look at ships _everybody_ build now, it's all about layered anti-air defense, CIWS, point defence missiles, fleet air defence and networked sensors and fire control.
Just a single Type 45 now provides all of that on it's own, more than a Type 42 and Type 22 combined.
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.
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.
I was a navigator on those C-130 tankers. To get the freighter CMk1 to Stanley took 2 refuellings. Initially we used a Victor for the first bracket and the KMk1 Herc for the second, and eventually 2 C-130 tankers. The mission to do the second bracket took 17 hours out and back. Once the Stanley runway had been extended and covered in AM2 we took the tanker Hercs down to the Islands to support the Harriers and F-4s, but there were no larger aircraft in the inventory back then. Eventually when Mount Pleasant was built in '87 the Tristars took over the Air Bridge and didn't need refuelling, but we didn't buy the Tristars until a few years afterthe war.
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.
It's a cliche but can-do spirit did play a role here. The Vulcan crew was all-in regardless.
It’s in even worse shape now
It'll be entiry non-existent when Corbyn sells it all off to pay for his communist utopia...
On paper, I would have to say: they were not able to do this.
@@Zakalwe-01 Corbyn sucks but Argentina only invaded after Thatcher cut spending on defence.
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.
Flexibility is the key to air power, as they say. BTW I was in white 4.
Yeah it was the right solution, but I saw it exactly like a staged rocket. Once you run a stage out of fuel, discard it to drop the weight.
@@Hypersonik For anyone who's ever played Kerbal Space Program, this is very similar to asparagus staging.
@@SoWhat1221 Yeah, it can take a lot of planning to actually build something to work that way
@@MegaWeebles Were you with Paul Milligan? He'd been one of my QFIs 4 years earlier and I met him on ASI just before the raid.
That is the most British thing ever. An absurdly impractical and dangerous effort for a task way over their heads that, somehow, works.
The runway was repaired within hours, but was camouflaged to look busted during the day, and operational at night.
The last C-130 flew out of it in the early hours of June 14th.
The runway wasn't extended, reinforced, nor used for Mirages ever, which was very idiotic.
@@hugoarcada Found the argie lmao
@S D Are you an adult?
@S D Thatcher matched idiotic hubris with ridiculous and unrepentant aggression
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.
I remember watching a documentary about this and the scramble to rebuild the in-flight refueling system. Apparently they were missing a critical valve component and were trying to work out how fast they could fabricate a new one when one of the engineers found the part being used as an ashtray in the crew mess.....
When asked to do something your aircraft was not designed for. And when working with what you've got. The armed forces do seem to rise to the challenge.
I suppose operating as the RAF does, punching well above its weight and doing so with limited budgets. Working around problems is the norm.
British stiff upper lip: Chaps, We may not have any fuel but on the bright side it means we're lighter.
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"
nails
Also you keep the grunts less supplied so the grunts are always too angry to die.
Coffee and tea are priorities, everything else is secondary
The planners of this mission obviously stayed awake during math class.
A remarkable feat
One tiny error and there'll be plenty of tankers landing on the sea.
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
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.
Hi I love the vulcan
If they knew how difficult it was maybe things would have been different.
@@dukedepommefrites8779 In hindsight cruise missiles would've been the best weapon to use on Port Stanley. 6 cruise missiles would've put the runway out of action for much longer, and without endangering friendlies.
@@killman369547 It seems like that could be tricky as cruise missiles use side-scanning terrain radar for their navigation. They'd have a lot of featureless sea to cross before fixing on the island, and then possibly not have enough maneuverability to turn inland to hit the runway (not sure of the scale from the video.) I can't remember the operation, but I've seen another video where cruise missiles had to take a circuitous route around a flat expanse of desert so they would have some mountains to follow to the target.
@@jimstanley_49 That was on another Operations Room video, "Air War in Desert Storm."
thanks for explaining the refueling brackets as you did, having read Vulcan 607 i never understood how the refueling worked until now .. thanks again
No problem, glad you enjoyed
I will happily second that comment! Vulcan 607 is a great read but this visual displayed the operation perfectly. Thanks!
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)... ;-)
Love this !
Bullshit! They should be ashamed to be a member of the RAF! They were incompetent and a bunch of hacks!
@@josephkane825 what a cock
Love it 😂🇬🇧
@@josephkane825 Poor fellow, you're not a gentleman, are you.
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.
There were actually two carriers on the Doolittle raid. Hornet and Enterprise which only reinforces what a had risk operation that mission was.
You've got wrong information, the crater wasn't patched, the opposite, the argentinians threw more mud over the crater to make it look bigger because they knew that the british were looking with satellites. The runway at Stanley was used by the argentinian aircrafts till the end of the war, with the last Hercules taking off in the middle of the night during the Tumbledown combat was going on, so the runway wasn´t destroyed. Plus, the argentinians gave up the idea of landing combat aircrafts in the runway BEFORE this bombing, in april. The effect was psychological. The fear of another Vulcan bombing was constant. And This was the only succesfull Black Buck mission, and it failed to actually destroy the runway...
@@sanignacio1999 My primary source for information on the raid was Rowland White's book, "Vulcan 607". He talked extensively to the RAF personnel who planned and executed Black Buck 1 and it was made clear that destroying the runway wasn't the objective - cutting it in half was the plan. They loaded the Vulcans with leftover WW2-vintage bombs and planned to drop them at an angle across the runway in the hopes of putting at least one of them onto it and rendering it inoperable for fast jets. They didn't know what Argentina's plans were for the runway at Stanley, only that it was the only runway in the vicinity that theoretically COULD accommodate Mirages and Skyhawks. So the plan was to shorten it by half and that's what they did.
@@elennapointer701 It was a success for the british, but did nothing against the argentines. Why they didn't even try to extend the runway before this bombing raid is puzzling. It was fully operational at night until the end if the war though.
Correct. The fact that all dog fights took place with fast jets coming from the mainland tells us what we need to know. Much further to travel and more fuel burned giving far less time to possibly dogfight and use your gas-guzzling afterburners, fewer sorties per day also as further to fly.
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.
Well, 21 1000lbs bombs
@@Damo2690 I know. I was referring to the fact that only one bomb did any damage.
Did the fleet have the fuel to get two Vulcans over target?
@@Dave5843-d9m they did but one of the Vulcans had to turn back when the cabin wouldn't pressurize. I remember when I was a kid i went to an air show here in Winnipeg and the RAF showed up with one or their Vulcans. Blew my mind mind when it flew low altitude over the crowd. That wing. The size. The noise! I never forgot it. As I think about it i imagine they could never get that close to a crowd nowadays. My all-time favorite plane.
From the snags that occurred in the later stages of the outbound flight, particularly the electrical storm, & a snapped refuelling drogue it looks like the abort of the 2nd Vulcan was fortuitous to getting the single Vulcan onto target & safely returned.
It was remarkable that the Vulcan wasn't hit by an Argentine air defense battery concentrated on a single aircraft. Even more remarkable was the slide rule planning (without sophisticated computing aids in 1982) to achieve all the many buddy-buddy, & bomber refuelling contacts necessary to get the Vulcan to its target. A terrific achievement by the Victor Operations planners at HQ No 1 (Bomber) Group
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.
How did the Vulcans perform?
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
Same here mate, first of all you get that quad bass rumble tearing your very molecules apart as it releases the brakes, then as it glides past, that distinctive blowing over the top of a bottle sound, howling as it screams skyward. Inspiring stuff.
I remember it's final RAF service year, when they really opened up the engines and threw it around like a fighter one last time. I thought it would be the last time I saw her. Until she was restored and flew much more conservative displays for a few years. Still, that sound. Never forgotten.
I would love to have experienced a whole squadron taking off.
@@poppedweasel I saw one growing up in the USAF, at an airshow. Looked awesome, sounded awesome.
@@poppedweasel that would be amazing on paper, but you'd probably be literally deaf now ;)
@@rowgliLikely be extinct too. If a whole squadron took off, there probably wouldn't be a UK for them to return to. Some things should remain wishes. ;)
@@rikk319 I saw one fly at an air show at Edwards AFB , California back in 1980. Awesome . I was in the USAF at the time.
That was by far the best description of Black Buck One I've ever heard!!! Liked and subbed instantly!!!! Well Done Mate!!!!
The Vulcan is my favorite non-USAF aircraft. Its kind of sad it couldn't me modernized like the B-52.
Vulcan is cooler than a B52, sorry not sorry :D
@@TheOperationsRoom and the Victor. Such a scary aircraft.
@@TheOperationsRoom Sorry dude. Can't side with you on that one. BUFF's rule!
@@sarge505050 I guess you yanks will make silly claims like the P51 is cooler than a Spitfire next ;)
@@TheOperationsRoom, aye, remember, it is an aircraft the RAF wanted and we delivered.
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!
They played Chariot of Fire cassette in the Vulcan after the bomb run. Truly classic
I know that it's just a map animation but boy that was intense
I've never been so hooked on a story of little plane icons and a low res map.
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
The jet version of Rodan.
At the 1956 Farnborough Air Show the Vulcan Bomber did a roll on take off. It is on TH-cam.
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.
oh, and the vulcan had to do the flight back unarmed if i recall (including the condition you mentioned), right?
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.
XX558 wasn't a Vulcan. Presumably you mean XH558? Which didn't take part in the mission at all.
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 think you're right about the ashtray.
It is said there was a conversation between the brits and the Americans who's airbase on ascension the mission was run from. The fuel was supplied through the Americans and when the brits gave them their requirements the American commander said " you can't possibly use that much fuel" the reply was "we're going to give it a bloody good try"
I can't be certain it is true but i hope it is.
And for what it is worth. The Americans did help out logistically with this mission so respect to you.
@lee van cleef these days nukes would be delivered by a cargo ship from China.
@lee van cleef please say this is a joke.
@@finkyfamboni4333 No it's not. Mark Felton has a video on it (can't find the file reference ATM)
>scavenged parts for the bomber from museums and junkyards
This still happens.
Refuelling midair, looks damn hard on a good day. This whole operation just blows my mind. The animation is much appreciated.
The failure rate was so high. What a fantastic video. Never knew about the refueling plan. Fantastic.
Fantastic video, those animations were very helpful to track the complicated refueling procedure.
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.
And the crew played Chariots of Fire on the way back home.
as they hugged and cried probably knowing that they wont be getting wet
And everyone stood up and clapped
This is simply amazing. I never realised just how complex it was.
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.
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.
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.
@b52gf16c i have not heard of that. However the base was still in operation at that time. Far as the museum's existence im not sure. Will look into that. Very interesting. Cheers
@b52gf16c awesome information. I will have to visit for the 30th time...true actually
😀
@b52gf16c yes it is..i was there 6 months ago with my grandson. It never gets boring there. I posted a few vids of my visit on my channel if you care to check them out. Thank you for the information.
I remember reading in the local paper, during the conflict, about the removal of the part from the Castle museum Vulcan. Don't remember seeing it in the national news.
This is accurate. The Vulcan there was on display already in 1982. Castle AFB was still active.
The British removed the refueling probe and sent it back home for some reason. Visitors weren’t told why.
So spare parts from a museum in the USA were flying in the Falklands War. They gave the probe back at a later date.
I was in Olinda Brazil and saw two Vulcans roaring over that day. For a 11 year old boy and fanatic for war jets it was quite a scene. Thanks for posting this video.
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.
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.
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
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.
@Hammer 001 Taking fast jets off the islands is effective. Taking out following radar stations, then a foll up bombing strike on the Argentine garrison was entirely effective. British servicemen didn't die from potential action from those assets, its a complete success of tax payers money.
@@1993Crag Only one radar station was eliminated in the succeeding Black Buck raids. Two Black Buck raids were scrubbed, Black Bucks Two and Seven did not hit their targets (the bombs on Seven had not been fused correctly anyway); Five only did minor damage to their long-range radar and Six failed to acquire it and so only destroyed a single fire-control radar. Furthermore, Six was diverted to Brazil due to a refueling failure and nearly caused a political incident involving an American missile still aboard the plane.
Black Buck One was successful, as it achieved its objective, but I would argue the subsequent Black Bucks were not worthwhile given the Herculean effort to use bombers on the edge of retirement in a mission the RAF never planned for, and only existed to give the RAF an opportunity to participate in the conflict and to improve morale.
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!
I've got nothing against the British over the falklands war. The only thing that makes me scratch my head is why not just use cruise missiles to hit port stanley instead of risking a bomber and crew? This seems like an awful lot of work for one bomb hit.
@@killman369547 it’s 39 years ago....
Have a look back at what was in the arsenal and what was available to the planners at the time......
Absolutely outstanding effort by the RAF to inflict the first blow in recapturing the Falkland Island and extremely well presented video. 👍
What a madniss.... Great job as usual OR. I was on the edge of my seat
Glad you enjoyed it
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.
“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.
Almost like... “Let’s roll”
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.
Interesting, do you have a a source?
This is the 4th video of your channel that I watched and I'm already subscribed and stopped skipping ads :)
Thanks for the visual. All the pilots must have been shaking their heads the whole time!
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.
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"
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!
Lost count of how many times i've watched this!
Excellent video! all of your production values are very professional.
Thank you for such an excellent video. I've seen this story told a number of times but to actually see the graphic representations of all the aeroplanes involved in that mission is truly amazing, it's such an eye-opener regarding the distances and logistics. I am incredibly fortunate to have seen the XH558 at RIAT a few years ago and I think there's something rather awesome about four engined Avro's, such as the Vulcan or the Lancaster.
As a slight side note, I was recently flying from Dublin to London and discovered the aeroplane I was on was a BAE146, AKA Avro RJ45, and I mused to myself it was nice that Avro were still flying four engined aeroplanes over the skies of Europe! ;-)
Amazing work! Looking forward to next video :)
I live within 2 miles of xm607 vulcan sat next to the runway of raf waddington amazing to see evertime I go past 👍
s g It's in a very sad state.
@@GSP21 but it is still at least in a state, rather than the metal reclaimed.
@@EngineeringAndRestoration You mean like maybe EVERY RN BATTLESHIP!?!
What a terrific video, great work!
Thanks!
You make the most incredible content. Thank you so much for the evident work you invest.
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!
Hey yeah was another doco on the raid here on TH-cam. Apparently it was an essential part that was required to carry out air refuelling
TRISTAN DICKINSON There’s a whole documentary on the Black Buck raids on TH-cam. It was being used as an ash tray in the RAF Waddington officer’s mess
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 believe this was the entire British Ariel Refuelling fleet. This was also one of the greatest bombing runs in history.
only thing about britain.
It knows how to hit a target somehow.
They’re not refilling washing detergent mate
A we;l-told story of impressive logistics, resourcefulness, and bravery. Your videos are superb and respectful to the stories they tell. Kudos.
Thank you very much!
Thanks for making and posting this video. I really enjoyed 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.
When you are waiting for the *DITCH DITCH DITCH!* from the pilot but you see the fuel going up. _Happy tea noises_
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!
God bless the men and women of the Royal Airforce. You make me so proud to be British. only the RAF with all the odds stacked heavily against them, would show what true courage and raw bravery was and is all about. I remember when the war broke out volunteering to join the Royal Navy. I never got to join as it happened but my heart and hopes were solidly with the British armed forces at that time. Many years later in Australia, I made the acquaintance of a man, Phil Baker who was an engineer on board the Canberra. He recalled that when they anchored off the Falklands, they were told they were to decoy for the Exocet missiles and to protect the carrier fleet. And they were all made to write out their last wills and testaments as they were no expected to survive. Shortly after, the Ship Atlantic Conveyor was hit by an Exocet as the Argentines initially thought she was one of the carriers... I cant recall too much now. But i felt an immersive pleasure knowing that once again the RAF and the Royal Navy, along with the SAS Royal Marine Commandos were doing their stuff to once again show that Britain may have it’s challenges But don’t mess with us. Because we will come out to play and win!
Absolutely outstanding show of British Grit, Determination and ingenuity.
Excellent! I now anxiously await every new raid ...
Thankyou, i look forward to bringing you more
You can actually see XM607, it’s positioned near the entrance to RAF Waddington on the A15 into Lincoln.
Dont forget to like and subscribe, it really helps the channel grow.
So, what next?
You should do the atom bomb drops on Japan
Please do the Operation Overlord!
I will, but thats a massive project! I think i'd have to split it into a 3 part series or something
That for Sure! But take Your Time....Word can wait a bit for it :) I am also passionate about aviation and history. I am also a modeler, through my models I learn about the history, events and people who created it. I invite you to check out with my channel th-cam.com/users/mmmodelworkshop . And of course to subscribe and share. All The best from Poland. Keep doing great job!
The battles of the Coral Sea, and Midway.
Another amazing video, edge of my seat the entire time. Keep up the great work!
Thank you for your hard work producing these outstanding videos !
Withers: "We can't complete the mission"
Operation control: "Extra tea and biscuits if you finish the mission."
Withers : "We're off!"
'This mission seems to be impossible.'
'Well, let's do it anyway.' The book Vulcan 607 is well worth a read.
Can warmly recommend The Fighterpilot podcast which has a recent interview with the Vulcan pilot that did the mission
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.
This is an exceptional video. Well done. Some very interesting information, and the visual aids are really amazing.
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.
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.
That band made a brilliant choice of music.
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 😆🇺🇸💞🇬🇧
Dec 30th and you're sitting at 188k well earned subscribers! I love your work, you do a terrific job!!
Beautiful- in the way that any bold and complicated plan that works by the skin of its teeth is beautiful. I really appreciate the graphical breakdown here which underlines how much of the mission was carried out on the edge of failure, and indeed the very edge of possibility. Yet that single bomb mid-runway made it all worthwhile, delivering the message "The British are coming and we mean it..." psyching the enemy out nicely right up front.
We in Canada were ready to help there!!!