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 Book
Review
Vulcan
607
Author -
Rowland White
Published
by - Bantam Press
Review by SHHAS member Malcolm Lee
VULCAN 607
is the gripping story of the men and machines involved in the first
“Black Buck” bombing mission to Stanley airport, in the
Falklands, during the 1982 conflict.
At the
time of Argentina’s invasion of the Falklands the RAF Vulcan force
was being wound down and the squadrons re-equipping with the Tornado.
When the Vulcan crews were tasked to fly a mission to the Falklands,
much work had to be done on the ageing aircraft to allow them to fly
from their forward operating base on Ascension Island. The air to air
refuelling system on the Vulcan had to be re-activated, after many
years of non use, additional navigation equipment, removed from ex-BA
VC 10’s, installed and an ECM pod installed on an under-wing pylon.
In addition the crews had to undertake training in air to air
refuelling and conventional bombing techniques, as none of the crews
were current with these skills.
During
the actual raid the extremely complex refuelling plan was constantly
being revised and recalculated, by the Victor tanker crews, to
overcome numerous technical problems and the unexpectedly high fuel
usage of the Vulcan, which was constantly flying over its AUW limits
for much of its journey south. To complete the first “Black Buck”
mission – “They had needed one Nimrod, two Vulcans, thirteen
Victors, nineteen separate in-flight refuellings, forty take-offs and
landings, forty-two 1,000lb bombs, ninety aircrew and over 1.5
million pounds of aviation fuel” All this effort contributed
to, at the time, the longest distance bombing mission, of nearly
8,000 miles, in history.
Rowland
White has written an exciting and fitting tribute to the courage and
professionalism of all those involved and when reading the final
chapters, on the raid itself, you will not want to put this book
down.
2007
will be the 25th anniversary year of the Falklands
conflict and with the real possibility of seeing a Vulcan in the air
again VULCAN 607 is a timely and highly recommended read.
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