Falklands40: The Black Buck Raids
The story of how the RAF pulled off one of the longest bombing raids of all time.
Dan Snow's History Hit · History Hit
April 30, 202233m 44s
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Show Notes
<p>The Falkland Islands lie 8000 miles from Britain making the Falklands War a particularly tricky one to fight; it required some seriously innovative thinking. No story from the Falklands better tells the story of that innovation than Operation Blackbuck which ran from the 30th of April 1982 to the end of the war. British bombers flew 4000 miles from the Southern Atlantic base at Ascension Island to the Falklands to destroy the Argentine runaway at Port Stanley. But there was a huge hurdle; Vulcan bombers couldn't manage that distance on one tank of fuel. Thousands of feet above the Atlantic in complete radio silence, the RAF crews had to engage in mid-flight refuelling, a particularly delicate dangerous process in which one aircraft feeds fuel to another while maintaining the exact same high speed, altitude and bearings without crashing into one another.</p><br><p>Join Dan on a trip to the Midlands Royal Airforce Museum at Cosford where he meets Dr Peter Johnston to tell the story of the Black Buck Raids- the longest bombing mission in history as well as stories of the RAF in the Falklands War from inside the famous Bravo November Chinook helicopter.</p><br><p>You can visit RAF Cosford. Find more information <a href="https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/midlands/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>here</strong></a>.</p><br><p>Produced by Mariana Des Forges</p><p>Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore</p><br><p>If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at <a href="https://access.historyhit.com/?utm_source=audio&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Podcast+Campaign&utm_id=Podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>History Hit</strong></a> - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the<strong> </strong><a href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.historyhit&hl=en_GB&gl=US" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Android</strong></a> or <a href="https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/history-hit/id1303668247" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Apple</strong></a> store.</p>
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