User:Necessary Evil/Vulcan 607
Rowland White: "Vulcan 607", 2006, Bantam Press, ISBN 0-593-05391-5
14 Victors Ascension Island p. 269 - 14 tankers - half of the entire RAF's entire tanker fleet.
thorough author: he was onboard Wellesbourne Mountford's Vulcan when it was taxiing and was shown every knob and switch in a Vulcan cockpit. He was also given a guided tour around the retired Victor Lusty Lindy.
In bed with Royal Air Force
as the Americans say: "there is no such thing as a free lunch" TINSTAAFL
He's got a "huge debt of gratitude" p. xi Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Michael Beetham crucial support. "His involvement" "facilitated my visit to the Falkland Islands and Ascension Island and a place on a recent RAF air-refuelling sortie".
runway damage p. 363
p. 364 "He (Beetham) wanted to create doubt in the minds of the junta about British intent and capability. Were the mainland bases under threat? Was Buenos Aires at risk? That doubt saw the immediate redeployment of Argentina's entire Mirage fighter force to the north of the country, out of range of the Falklands, to defend targets that played no part in British plans."
p. 364 "But there was a third, unexpected, consequence of the raid, and one that's never really been properly appreciated. The 1 May attack on Stanley airfield was, believed Admiral Lombardo, the Argentine Commander of Combined Operations, to be the prelude to a full-scale amphibious landing by the British." Here White is omitting the Sea Harrier attack and the coastal bombardment by the navy. "As a consequence, Admiral Allara, Commander of the Argentine Navy," (Rear Admiral Allara was only head of Task Group 79.1, the aircraft carrier ARA Veinticinco de Mayo) "was ordered to launch an immediate offensive against the British task force. It was a disastrous decision."
p. 365 "Of Belgrano's complement of 1,042, 368 lost their lives in the freezing South Atlantic." 368 is an archaic number, the correct number is 323.
Picture text between p. 284-85: "top right of the picture is an Aermacchi MB-339 light attack jet of the Argentine Navy's 1 Escuadrilla de Ataque - an air threat grounded by 607's attack"
Comodoro Héctor (Manuel) Rusticcini, Argentine Air Force (Major, Componente Logísto de la BAM Malvinas.) Ana-Maria Rivera translator. Mirage IIIEA from Grupo 8 de Caza, Vicecomodoro H. J. Páez isn't even mentioned.
Chapter 27 - 29 April 1982: p. 233:"At BAM Malvinas, engineers of the Argentine Army were working to improve the runway. Two hundred feet of steel matting was put down at the western end, which provided a marginally greater safety margin for the aircraft operating from the strip. Of greater significance was the effort to install arrestor gear at the same end. When the work was finished, wires would lie across the runway and could be caught by a hook trailed from the back of a landing aircraft, bringing it to a safe stop before the end of the Tarmac. The equipment worked in exactly the same way as the arrestor wires on the Argentine carrier Veinticinco de Mayo and would allow the Super Étendards and A-4Q Skyhawks of the Comando Aviación Naval Argentina to land at BAM Malvinas carrying stores in all weather conditions." Funny, doesn't he know that land-based fighters also have tailhooks to stop them at the 'approach-end cable arrestment' in emergency situations.
Usefull[edit]
Chapter 26: p. 220: " 0.24 seconds between bombs. This translated at ground level into fifty-four yards between each bomb. But although the runway was only forty yards wide, there was no danger of missing completely because the Vulcan wouldn't be flying at 90 degrees to it. Rather than having a target forty yards across, the 35-degree angle of the cut meant the potential target increased to seventy-six yards. If two bombs straddled the runway perfectly, each would land well within the opposite edges of the paved surface."
Chapter 26: p. 225: "twenty-one 1,000lb high-explosive iron bombs armed with 487 fuses and 117 ballistic tails" "crater sixty feet wide and thirty feet deep".
Appendix 1 - Vulcan Cutaway: No.1 fuselage fuel tanks (divided in port and starboard), No.2 fuselage fuel tanks, No.3-7 port and No.3-7 starboard fuel tanks.
Appendix 2 - Victor Cutaway: Overwing fuel tank, Wing centre-section fuel tank, Bomb bay roof forward fuel tank, Forward refuelling bomb bay tank, Bomb bay roof aft fuel tank, Aft refuelling bomb bay tank, Rear fuselage fuel tank, Starboard wing fuel tanks (outer & inner wet wings), Port wing fuel tanks (outer & inner wet wings), 2 × Underwing fuel tanks.
Chapter 28: p. 240: curfew between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m., ID papers was to be carried, windows blacked out, telephone lines disconnected to FIDF members' households.
Chapter 23: p. 200: 545 residents who remained in Stanley.
p. xvii Maps Hookers Point Airstrip (disused).
Commander-in-Chief Strike Command Air Marshall Williamson.