Vulcan 607, Book Review

publication date: Aug 29, 2007

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author/source: Adam Hill

The book covers the preparation for the Black Buck raids by RAF Vulcan bombers against the Argentinian forces on the Falkland Islands during the 1982 Falklands War. The RAF initially found itself unable to assist the Task Force being sent south to recover the Islands because of the huge distances involved, but quickly realised that it may be possible to deploy Vulcan Bombers carrying conventional bombs on Ascension Island. With in-flight refuelling, Vulcans would be able to reach either the Falklands or the Argentinain mainland to attack strategic targets such as airfields. Unfortunately, the aging bomber force and the Victor tankers need modifications to enable them to operate so far from a land base. The book covers the modifications and ad-hoc engineering solutions that the RAF completed to make the planes ready for operations. In flight refuelling had not been done by the Vulcan crews for twenty years, and the 20 year old cement in the valves had to be removed. With Vulcans already being replaced, spares were retrieved from workshops, scrap yards and museum exhibits. One critical part was being used as an ash tray.

The pilot training is covered, night flying, in-flight refuelling and low level bombing, although the latter was replaced by a medium level attack mode for the mission. The crews had not been trained for ten years in conventional bombing, instead purely operating with a practice 400kiloton nuclear bomb. Pin point accuracy, needed to cut a runway with conventional bombs, was not required with nuclear weapons. The crews had to prepare against western air defence assets such as Rowland missiles and Orelikon cannon, rather than the Warsaw Pact equipment they were used to. The activities on Ascension Island are interesting, with the US Colonel in charge of the facilities at Wideawake airfield being given instructions to help the British with whatever they needed, but not to get caught ( Shrike Anti-radar missiles were fitted to a later Black Buck mission by a team ‘with American accents who purported to be South African’).

The first Black Buck mission had Vulcan 607 as the reserve bomber, but when the primary plane had to turn back soon after take off with a minor technical fault, Martin Withers and his crew became the mission team. The return flight south was supported by a Nimrod and 13 Victor tankers, and the complex in-flight refuelling assumptions, options and problems are described in detail in the book. The total flight lasted 15 hours 45 minutes and was the longest bombing mission in history. It successfully cut the runway at Port Stanley and denied the Argentinians the use of the runway to jet fighters and bombers, although the robust Hercules fleet continued to supply the Argentinian garrison. It also forced Argentina to keep air defence weapons and fighter aircraft on the mainland to prevent Vulcan attacks on the mainland air bases.