In early April, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, a tiny cluster of land in the South Atlantic. The British mobilized their fleet to retake them, staging out of Ascension Island. On the 25th, a force retook South Georgia, a small island that Argentina had also captured, while the main task force closed on the Falklands themselves.





Six days after South Georgia fell, the British launched their first strike on the Falklands. The carriers had closed in, and were about to begin the campaign for air and sea superiority within the 200-mile Total Exclusion Zone. However, the honor of the first strike fell not to the Navy but to the Royal Air Force.





The recapture of the Falklands was obviously going to be primarily a naval operation, but the RAF, fearful of getting left out, started looking for a way to contribute directly, instead of merely flying supplies into Ascension and conducting an occasional Nimrod sweep near the Task Force. They quickly settled on the Avro Vulcan, Britain's only remaining operational bomber. The Vulcan was scheduled to be retired in June, with only three squadrons still in service, all assigned to the nuclear strike mission. None had practiced conventional bombing in years, and the airplanes would have to be refitted with the bomb racks and control systems to carry conventional weapons. Jamming pods were fitted to the hardpoints originally designed to carry Skybolt missiles two decades earlier.

But those were minor problems when compared to the 6,600-nautical mile trip from Ascension to the Falklands and back. The Vulcan had been designed as a medium-range bomber, to strike targets in the western USSR, and could manage barely a third of that on internal fuel. Aerial refueling was the obvious solution, but the Vulcans had lost their refueling probes years earlier. Supply depots and air museums were asked to look for any available probes, and one team even flew to California to retrieve one from a Vulcan on display there. Their navigation systems were also inadequate for the trip, and improved inertial navigation packages were installed.





Finally, shortly before midnight on April 30th, the first raid of Operation Black Buck took off from Wideawake. The two Vulcans, one primary and one reserve, were supported by eleven Handley Page Victor tankers. The Victors had also had to be upgraded with improved navigation systems to support the long overwater flights, and their ability to receive as well as give fuel had allowed them to provide reconnaissance support for the recapture of South Georgia. Several of the planes, after turning over their first load of fuel, would sortie a second time and support the airplanes on the way back from the bombing mission. In total, 15 sorties and 18 aerial refuelings would be required to deliver 10.5 tons of bombs to the Falklands.





Shortly after getting airborne, the primary bomber, Vulcan XM598, suffered a pressurization failure and had to turn back, leaving the reserve, Vulcan XM607 under Flight Lieutenant Martin Withers, to carry on the mission. One of the Victors also had refueling system problems and had to be replaced by the reserve tanker.

After the second refueling, more tankers were drained and turned for home, leaving just three aircraft, two Victors and the Vulcan. Murphy's law placed the last refueling between the two Victors over a thunderstorm, delaying the hookup between the two aircraft. Worse, the refueling probe on the Victor intended to make the final refueling, XH669, broke, forcing the two aircraft to swap places. XL189 took on the fuel it had just passed over, along with the extra necessary to carry the Vulcan to the Falklands and on to the refueling rendezvous on the return leg. There was a danger that XH669's broken probe had blocked the basket of XL189, but the Vulcan flew in close and inspected the basket, which appeared to be clear, with a flashlight.





Unfortunately, the drama wasn't over. The problems with the refueling had cut deeply into XL189's margins, and the crew had to pass over 7,000 lbs less fuel than had been planned to the Vulcan at the last refueling, cutting XM607s reserves in half. Even what they retained would not be enough to get them back to Ascension unless they were refueled, but the need for radio silence meant that they couldn't be sure of support until after the bombing run.





Back at Ascension, the first group of Victors were returning. The island had only one runway and no taxiways, and the prevailing winds forced the Victors to land from the end opposite the hardstand. Under normal conditions, the plan would have been to land, taxi back along the runway to the hardstand, then land the next plane. This required the remaining planes to circle and wait, and the refuelings had drained their tanks too much for that to be possible. Instead, the Victors would simply wait at the far end until all four had landed, then turn and taxi back as a group. This meant that the last Victor down would be barreling towards the other three, and any brake failure would be utterly catastrophic, eliminating a sixth of the RAF's tanker force and imperiling the aircraft still in the air. But everything worked perfectly, and the runway was soon clear.





After the last refueling, XM607 dived to low altitude, hoping to sneak in under the coverage of the AN/TPS-43 radar at Port Stanley. 46 miles out, the Vulcan began to climb to the 10,000 ft chosen for the attack. Their target was the runway, in the hopes of disabling it and preventing the Argentinians from basing fast jets there. The altitude was partially to avoid AAA fire from the guns around Stanley, and partially to give the bombs enough speed to penetrate the runway. The British had calculated that the most effective way to make the attack was to come in at a 30° angle to the runway centerline, dropping the 21 1000 lb bombs at 50-yard intervals. This should give the antiquated radar and attack system a good chance of getting a hit on the runway.





The actual attack was almost anticlimactic. Surprise and the efforts of the Air Electronics Officer meant that there was no gunfire or missiles to menace the bomber. The radar operator was able to pick up the required offset points with only minimal difficulty, and the bombs were released smoothly at about 0445 local time. Withers threw XM607 into a tight turn, and 20 seconds later, the bombs began their march across the airfield.





In Port Stanley, about 7 miles away, the residents were awakened by the boomboomboomboom of the bombs going off. It was a tremendous morale boost, reassuring them that the British were on their way. A few minutes later, the AAA guns opened fire on the empty sky, as the Vulcan climbed for altitude. The crew transmitted the code word "superfuse" indicating that they believed they'd made a successful attack. Their first bomb had landed almost exactly in the center of the runway, while a second cratered the edge of the strip. Another bomb damaged a Pucara light attack aircraft and the only hangar on the field.





The transmission allowed XL189 to break their radio silence, informing Ascension of their predicament. A tanker was dispatched, while XM607 headed for its last refueling, off the coast of Brazil. Withers described his first sight of the Victor as "the most beautiful sight in the world". Unfortunately for him, it didn't last long, as a leak in the refueling system resulted in a thin curtain of fuel covering the bomber's windshield when the probe was inserted. Fuel was still reaching the bomber, and out of fear of a problem with the equipment that would prevent reengagement, Withers remained in contact with the tanker, with one of his crew guiding him by looking through a small slit that was free of fuel. After that, it was a fairly simple four-hour cruise back to Ascension.





Black Buck was one of the most daring aerial missions ever attempted, and a tribute to the RAF. At the time, it was by far the longest-range bombing mission ever attempted. However, from an operational standpoint, it was a failure. A tremendous amount of time, effort, and fuel had been expended to place two bombs on the runway at Stanley, and the resulting holes were patched relatively quickly. There is more debate over the strategic effects of the raid. It's often credited with forcing the Argentinian Air Force to withdraw Mirage fighters from supporting the raids on the British ships and deploy to protect the mainland from similar raids, but the British quickly undercut any such effect when they promised they would do nothing of the sort. The fear of further such attacks did deter the deployment of fast jets to the airfield, which might have prevented the British gaining air superiority over the islands.





Even as XM607 made the long trip back to Ascension, the carriers were launching their first raid on the islands. We'll pick up their story next time.