In an ideal world, ‘One Bomb’ Beetham – as some who didn’t properly grasp the ambition or success of the raid had unfairly tagged him – would have liked to have put ten Vulcans over Stanley, but it couldn’t be done; the resources just weren’t there. His Air Force had done everything it said it would do and more – without BLACK BUCK, the war would have been harder to win. In the event, one bomber was enough.
And that bomber, the magnificent delta-winged Avro Vulcan, just months before it was destined for the scrapheap, entered the Guinness Book of Records for having flown, at nearly 8,000 miles, ‘the longest-range attack in air history’. Despite the eventual Argentine surrender on 14 June, the Vulcans soldiered on as bombers with 44 Squadron under Simon Baldwin until December 1982 – given a stay of execution as a contingency against further Argentine aggression. Had they retired in July as planned, nothing else in the RAF could have done the job. On 8 November 1982, in conditions of great secrecy, one of Strike Command’s recently acquired Panavia Tornado GR1s, accompanied by a Buccaneer S2, took part in exercise STORM TRAIL. The aim was to demonstrate the offensive reach of the new strike jet by staging a mock attack on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus from the UK. The Tornado took off from RAF Marham. Strict conditions on the air-to-air refuelling were put in place – not above 28,000 feet and not in cloud – because the Tornado’s anti-icing systems weren’t yet fully operational. Both limits had to be busted in order for the mission to succeed. At times, the Tornado, always asthmatic at altitude, had to rely on the Victor tankers supporting the mission to shepherd it along. It made it there and back, though. Just. But the Tornado’s warload on STORM TRAIL was a tiny fraction of that carried by Vulcans on the BLACK BUCK missions; the distance from the UK to Cyprus, barely 2,000 miles.
For his flight into the unknown, Martin Withers was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross while his crew were Mentioned in Dispatches. Withers’ citation recorded that he had displayed qualities of ‘leadership, determination and presence of mind which were an inspiration to his crew’. He took them with him to London when he was presented with his medal.
For his part, Bob Tuxford was awarded the Air Force Cross – his crew all received the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air. Tux also received a personal letter from Sir Michael Beetham congratulating him on his ‘epic flight’.
Shortly after the end of hostilities, Tuxford’s wife Eileen was at home alone watching a documentary about the Falklands War on television when the telephone rang. She picked up and a voice she didn’t recognize introduced himself as Martin Withers’ father. He’d been watching the same programme and had felt moved to say something.
‘If it hadn’t been for your husband’s AFC,’ he told her, ‘my son wouldn’t have got his DFC.’
On Ascension Island the day after the raid, when its fragile tapestry had become apparent to all involved, Bob Tuxford was enjoying a drink with Beer, Keable, Rees and Wallis in the American commissary. The group looked up to see Martin Withers’ Vulcan crew crossing the noisy bar to join them. Withers was carrying a tray of beers which he set down on the table and pushed towards Tuxford.
‘Well done, guys,’ Withers said, ‘and thank you.’ It didn’t need much more than that.
Epilogue
The Old Lags
The raid had three advantages, really. The first advantage was to give the people at that time a little fillip. The news had been all bad until then. The second advantage was to cause the Japanese to worry and feel that they were vulnerable, and the third and most useful part of the raid was that it caused a diversion of aircraft and equipment to the defense of the home islands which the Japanese badly needed in the theaters where the war was actually being fought.
Brigadier General James Doolittle, USAAF, leader of the April 1942 ‘Doolittle Raid’ on Tokyo, reflects, years later, on its impact
At just after nine o’clock in the evening on 1 May 1982, television audiences around Britain tuned in to BBC1 to watch the big hair and shoulderpads of a new American drama called Dynasty. As they settled into their sofas, in London over 700 veterans of the Second World War gathered under the heavy chandeliers of the Grosvenor House ballroom for the annual Bomber Command Association dinner. Every year since 1977, they’d met at the Park Lane hotel to keep alive the memory of their wartime contribution. Some had attended a memorial service earlier in the day at the Royal Air Force church of St Clement Danes at the eastern end of the Strand, but most had come to the capital especially for the evening’s reunion. They’d been well fed and watered when Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Beetham rose from his chair to reply to the toast on behalf of the Royal Air Force. As a Bomber Command veteran himself he was one of them and that, at any other time, would have been enough to guarantee a warm reception. Today, though, just a few hours earlier, Flight Lieutenant Martin Withers had shut down the engines of his Vulcan bomber on a remote airfield in the mid-Atlantic after completing an epic mission ordered by Beetham himself. The RAF strategic bomber force had been in action again and that event held a significance in this company that it could hold nowhere else. Some of the audience had gone on, after the war, to fly the Vulcans and Victors of the V-force. One or two of the names of the men who’d taken part in BLACK BUCK might even have been familiar to them. Beetham felt at home and spoke with pride on the day of another extraordinary RAF achievement.
And yet the veterans’ most enthusiastic reaction was reserved for someone else. The room fell silent as the Guest of Honour, wearing thick, black-rimmed spectacles, rose to speak. Although ninety years old and reliant on a pair of hearing aids, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris remained a pungent, witty after-dinner speaker. And ‘Old Butch’, as he was known to his crews, was adored by them. They shared with him the hurt that came from knowing their role in Hitler’s defeat had not been properly recognized by their country. Indeed, it seemed sometimes that she was almost ashamed of what they had done. Harris spoke for twenty minutes without notes, captivating an audience that hung on his every word and afterwards sat late into the night, finding time for all who asked for it. Stung into silence by the controversy surrounding his wartime bombing campaign he had only recently begun to talk of it again, mainly because of the encouragement of the veterans. He was profoundly moved by the affection shown to him by his ‘old lags’. Sir Michael Beetham felt privileged to have become friendly with Harris in his years as Chief of the Air Staff. The two men sat next to each other at dinner. But Harris was not the only legendary wartime leader in attendance. Another honoured guest was the 86-year-old Lieutenant General James H. Doolittle, Commander of the US 8th Air Force and Harris’s American counterpart towards the end of the war. ‘Bert’ Harris counted Doolittle as one of the closest of his friends. And his presence today had a particular resonance.
In April 1942, Doolittle had led an ultra-long-range raid on Tokyo that marked the beginning of America’s response to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. For a while, America had been powerless to respond to the unexpected attack on her Hawaiian naval base. But the audacity and ingenuity of Doolittle’s B-25 strike on Tokyo had shaken the Japanese. Ironically, one of those who appreciated the impact of the ‘Doolittle Raid’ was the then Argentine commercial attaché to Japan.
‘It caught the Japs by surprise,’ he reported, ‘their unbounded confidence began to crack.’
Forty years on, the RAF’s similarly unexpected raid had just had a comparable effect on his own countrymen – a fact not lost on Doolittle and his companions at the Grosvenor House dinner. As they discussed the Vulcan raid, Sir Michael Beetham was gratified by Harris’s approval. The old man was delighted with news of the bomber’s success.
‘We can’t be kicked around without retaliating,’ Harris said, reflecting on the decision to take out the runway. ‘I would have done exactly that.’ He went on, warming to his theme: the air-crews involved in BLACK BUCK, he was in no doubt, were of ‘the same breed’ as those he used to command.
Harr
is’s only note of criticism was appropriate given the name by which he was now best known. Ideally, he said, he might have liked to use heavier bombs; make bigger craters. But, as he had the grace to acknowledge, ‘it is an awfully long way to carry them’.
Glossary
18228 part number for the Vulcan’s Radar Warning Receiver
90 Way The unit controlling the dropping of the Vulcan’s bomb-load. So called because, supposedly, it offered ninety different options
A-4 Skyhawk US-made single-engine, single-seat naval attack aircraft
AARI Air-to-Air Refuelling Instructor
AEO Air Electronics Officer
AFC Air Force Cross
AIM-9 Sidewinder American-made heat-seeking air-toair missile
Alpha Jet Franco-German advanced jet-training aircraft
Amtrac Armoured Personnel Carrier
anti-metric depth An imperial depth that’s not directly equivalent to an obvious metric depth such as 50, 100, 150 or 200 metres
AOC Air Officer Commanding
APC Armoured Personnel Carrier
AS12 air-to-surface missile carried by British Wasp helicopters
AS-37 Martel Anglo-French air-to-surface missile
ASI Ascension Island
astro-navigation Establishing one’s position using a sextant and starcharts
B-52 Stratofortress American eight-engined heavy bomber
Balbo Slang for a large formation of aircraft. After Italo Balbo, an Italian who, in 1933, flew a squadron of twenty-two flying boats from Italy to the United States
BAM Malvinas Base Aérea Militar Malvinas
Bear The NATO reporting name for the TU-95, a swept-wing Soviet patrol bomber powered by four turboprop engines
Belfast British turboprop transport aircraft
Bingo Fuel A preplanned fuel level at which an aircraft has to turn for home
Bison The NATO reporting name for the M-4, a Soviet four-jet patrol bomber
Bone Dome protective flying helmet
Buccaneer British low-level strike aircraft
Burn-Out Zone The zone where a weapon is inaccurate but still potentially lethal
C-130 Hercules US-made turboprop transport aircraft
C-141 US-made four-jet transport aircraft
Carousel an inertial navigation system
Dagger Israeli version of the Mirage jet
Dash 10 A wing-mounted podded radar jammer used by the Vulcan during the BLACK BUCK raids
DFC Distinguished Flying Cross
dihedral angled upwards from horizontal
drogue Also known as the basket, this is at the end of the hose trailed from the Victor’s HDU. Shaped like a shuttlecock, it couples with the receiver’s probe to allow fuel to flow between the two aircraft
DV Direct Vision
ECM Electronic Counter-Measures
EPIRB Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon
Exocet French air-, surface- or submarine-launched anti-ship missile
F4 Phantom American-built two-seat fighter-bomber
F95 aerial camera used by the RAF
FAA Fuerza Aérea Argentina: the Argentine Air Force
Fansong Soviet fire-control radar used with the SA-2 surface-to-air missile
FIBS Falkland Islands Broadcasting Service
FIDF Falkland Islands Defence Force
FIGAS Falkland Islands Government Air Service
fire-control radar Radar that directs the fire of anti-aircaft guns or surface-to-air missiles
flameout extinction of the flame in a jet engine’s combustion chamber
GADA 601 Grupo de Artillería de Defensa Aérea: an Argentine Army anti-aircraft unit
gash RAF slang for rubbish
Gnat British advanced jet-training aircraft
GPI6 Ground Position Indicator Mk 6
GPMG General Purpose Machine-Gun
green porridge RAF slang for the H2S radar display used by Vulcan and Victor Navigator Radars
Gun Dish Soviet fire-control radar used with the ZSU-23-4
H2S radar carried by Vulcans, Victors and Valiants
HDU Hose Drum Unit: the mechanism that winds and unwinds the Victor’s refuelling hose
HF high-frequency
HP cock high-pressure cock
Humphrey nickname for HMS Antrim’s Wessex helicopter
IFF Identification Friend or Foe: a radio transponder broadcasting on prearranged frequencies to confirm identity
INS Inertial Navigation System
JARIC Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre at RAF Brampton in Cambridgeshire
Jet Provost British basic jet-training aircraft
JPT jet pipe temperature
KC-135 US-made aerial tanker
KH11 American spy satellite
Kill Zone The zone in which a weapon is accurate and lethal
LADE Líneas Aéreas de Estado: airline operated by the Argentine Air Force
Lightning single-seat British jet fighter
LP cock low-pressure cock
Mae West RAF nickname for aircrew’s life jackets
MEZ Maritime Exclusion Zone
Mirage French-made single-engine, single-seat fighter-bomber
MRR Maritime Radar Reconnaissance
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NBS Navigation and Bombing System
NVGs night-vision goggles
OCU Operational Conversion Unit
ODM Operating Data Manual
Oerlikon Swiss-made radar-guided 35mm anti-aircraft cannon
Omega very-low-frequency radio navigation system
Operation ALPHA Argentine plan to establish sovereignty on South Georgia
Operation BLACK BUCK The codename given to RAF Vulcan raids during the Falklands War
Operation BLUE Argentine plan to seize the Falkland Islands
Operation CORPORATE The codename given to the British operation to retake the Falkland Islands
Operation PARAQUAT The codename for the British operation to retake South Georgia
PEC Personal Equipment Connector
pop up To ascend briefly from low level in order to deliver weapons
PRF Pulse Recurrence Frequency: picked up by an RWR and used by the AEO to distinguish one radar from another
probe The device through which a receiver takes on fuel during air-to-air refuelling
QFI Qualified Flying Instructor
QRA Quick Reaction Alert
Radar Altimeter Measures altitude by transmitting radar pulses directly downwards which reflect back to the radar aerial. In contrast to a barometric altimeter, it measures actual distance from the ground rather than indicating height above sea level
RAT Ram Air Turbine: source of emergency electrical power used in the event of engine failure
RED FLAG The realistic air warfare exercises held in Nevada, USA
Red Rag The codename for the BLACK BUCK Operations team on Ascension
Red Shrimp radar jammer fitted to the Vulcan
retarded bomb A bomb fitted with a drag parachute in order to prevent an aircraft flying at low level being damaged by the blast from its own weapons
Rheinmetall German-made 20mm anti-aircraft cannon
Roland Franco-German radar-guided surface-to-air missile
rotate The point at which an aircraft takes off
RT radio telephony
RV rendezvous
RWR Radar Warning Receiver
SA-2 Soviet surface-to-air missile: NATO reporting name Guideline
Saints nickname for St Helenians
SAM surface-to-air missile
SCSYS Satellite Communication System; pronounced ‘Sixsis’
Sea Harrier British V/STOL single-seat naval fighter-bomber
Sea King British naval helicopter
SHAR Royal Navy nickname for the Sea Harrier FRS1
Skybolt An air-launched ballistic missile, cancelled in the 1960s
Skyguard Swiss-made fire-control radar
&n
bsp; SLR Self-Loading Rifle
Spadeadam electronic-warfare range in Cumbria
stick spacing distance between each bomb in a stick of bombs
Super Étendard French-made single-engine, single-seat naval attack aircraft
Superfledermaus Swiss-made fire-control radar
TACAN Tactical Air Navigation: a UHF transponder that provides information on range and bearing
TEZ Total Exclusion Zone
TFR Terrain-Following Radar
Tiger Cat British-made optically guided surface-to-air missile
Tornado GR1 British/German/Italian-built two-seat, swing-wing strike aircraft
TPS-43 American-made long-distance search radar
TPS-44 American-made search radar
TRU Transformer Rectifier Unit
U-2 American high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft
UHF ultra-high frequency
VC10 A four-jet British airliner used by the RAF as a transport aircraft
Verey flare coloured flare fired from a pistol
VHF very-high frequency
V/STOL Vertical/Short Take-Off and Landing
Wasp British ship-borne helicopter
Wessex British helicopter
WRAF Women’s Royal Air Force
ZSU-23-4 Soviet radar-laid anti-aircraft cannon
Zulu Greenwich Mean Time
Bibliography
BOOKS
Barker, Nick, Beyond Endurance: An Epic of Whitehall and the South Atlantic Conflict, Leo Cooper, 1997.
Beckett, Andy, Pinochet in Piccadilly: Britain and Chile’s Hidden History, Faber and Faber, 2002.
Vulcan 607 Page 37
