Vulcan 607

by Rowland White

  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.