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Conclusions

To start the conclusion this is a good quote from Islander Tony Chater about the first nigh time Vulcan raid, Black Buck 1


“The whole house shook, as though there had been an earthquake. There was terrific jubilation. From then on, we felt confident the British forces would come to our rescue”

Putting the superb airmanship and engineering ingenuity to one side (they are a given) the controversy surrounding the Black Buck runway denial raids have obscured a couple of important factors.

First, the runway really was of massive strategic importance. It was a blunder on a grand scale by the Argentine forces to fail to plan properly for its exploitation and implement in a meaningful manner. They had the time, they had the materials and they certainly had enough intelligence. Some put this failure down to only involving the FAA at the last minute, perhaps this is true, I don’t know. Maybe it just wasn’t feasible or too marginal to do but in failing to use the location for both defensive and offensive combat aircraft the Argentine forces suffered the tyranny of distance that is familiar to all that operate combat aircraft. Their loss was our gain and we knew full well that the campaign would be very different if we did not put even the smallest of a possibility that they might, completely beyond doubt, this is what drove the opening attacks on the airport, risk reduction.

Second, efforts to deny the runway to Argentine fast jets were a JOINT effort. Naval gunfire, Sea Harriers and the Vulcans all combined to produce something that was greater than the sum of its parts. It was a grand opening display by the old empire, had an air of panache, displayed deadly intent and showed just who the big dog on the park was. It was a bravura feat of arms that was designed not only to have the practical effect of denying the runway at Port Stanley to Argentine fast jets but also to send a message to the Junta that the time for negotiation had passed and Great Britain was about to smash its back doors in (to coin a phrase!)

Subsequent attacks by Harriers (both flavours), Vulcan’s and naval gunfire failed to completely close the airport but although those that made the supply flights were extremely brave and skilful they had no chance of altering the final outcome, the ongoing attacks ensured that any lingering hopes of operating an effective combat aircraft presence from the airport were snuffed out.

It is also clear that very little is clear.

Some of those nagging questions about Argentine forces intent to operate fast jets from Port Stanley and whether they and it had the capacity to do so remain tantalisingly ambiguous.

Confusing and contradictory testimony and documented evidence creates a vacuum into which opinions are drawn into.

This post is no different in that regards.

What is a shame though is that acrimony, principally between some parts of the RN/FAA and RAF, has been allowed to grow. So much so now that opinions seem to have entrenched and it is self evident that this has forced each side to distort, embellish or downplay the reality.

The Black Buck raids were neither hero or villain, there were positive outcomes but there were equally failures.

I see them as part of a larger jigsaw and I hope this is how they are judged.

PLODDITHANLEY wrote:In terms of value for money not good, but the possible life saving of no AAF fast air at Stanley is worth how much?

Why didn't they just use more Naval bombardment to deny fast jets the runway - accuracy? too small shells? IDK.

They didn't want to risk the Harriers as they were a finite and dwindling resource, Stanley had a lot of air defence.

The first mission was a success to deny the possibility of fast air for the AAF, the others maybe not - RAF say they wanted to make sure they runway couldn't be lengthened others say they missed. Admittedly it is still unclear if the AAF wanted or were really able to deploy fast air at Stanley because of fuel and repair issues, but the Task force really didn't want to entertain the possibility.

I believe while the Shrike Vulcans were around and the radars were switched off the idea was the harriers used the lack of radar guided AAA and rolands to attack at low level I think that was the main objective.

Some say that the Junta was shocked by the possibility that Argentina could be bombed that they moved the air wing attacking the Isles to defend Argentina till the Brits said they wouldn't bomb Argentina (perhaps like Mr Putin and Ukraine?)

Argentine Offensive/Defensive Air Operations. The Argentine Mirage III, Mirage V and their A4 Skyhawks could operate from Stanley Airport with almost full payloads to defend the Island. The limited parking area would again be a problem. If the Argentine Air Force Engineers chose to improve this, however, there is no reason why, say, 4 of these fighter aircraft could not operate from Stanley. The factor most likely to limit the sortie rate is that of fuel supply. With forward planning and the engineer work described above it must therefore be assumed that the Argentine Air Force could give themselves at least some air cover

mries wrote:Falklands final secret | Daily Mail Online

Nice read

mries wrote:Falklands final secret | Daily Mail Online

Nice read

FlyingR wrote:Really? That was one of the worst and biased post ever, come on man, it's from the Daily Mail, at least give me something from the BBC...

FlyingR wrote:Something less biased? xD I mean it's pretty interesting but it does makes the Argentinians look like evil monsters (we didn't even kill any civilian or anything of the sort!). It's really hard to find something neutral, especially on Youtube, for real.

Btw, most of your videos in your OP are down

[R-DEV]Rhino wrote:Ye hehe, Brits were the only ones to kill any civies in the war (by naval bombardment, by accident) although the treatment of the civilians by the Argies wasn't that great during the war.

3===SPECTER===3 wrote:This was a cool little video. Maybe it'll help someone who doesn't have hours to sort through documentaries. The channel name is 'oversimplified' after-all.