The phrase "black deer" in Russian sounds funny and offensive. In English, Black Buck also does not mean anything good - this is how the Anglo-Saxons contemptuously called the South American Indians during the colonial era.
By the end of the twentieth century, Britain's colonial past was dispelled like smoke - only a few scraps of overseas territories survived from the once mighty Empire, among which are the cold and swampy Falklen Islands, lost at the ends of the Earth. But even those were almost lost in the spring of 1982, when the Argentine troops landed in the Falklands declared the archipelago the property of Argentina, returning the territories to their "original" name - the Malvinas Islands.
To regain the lost territories and restore the shaken status of the "ruler of the seas", Britain urgently sent a squadron of more than 80 warships and support vessels to the South Atlantic, at the same time the orbital group was expanded - new communication satellites were required to coordinate hostilities in the other hemisphere. In view of the extreme remoteness of the theater of military operations - more than 12,000 km from the shores of Europe - the "transshipment base" on about. Ascension. A rear refueling point of the British squadron was organized here, and the base naval aviation of Her Majesty's fleet operated from here. Despite the colossal distances and obsolete aircraft, the British were able to organize the work of basic patrol aircraft to cover the situation in the South Atlantic, and on May 1, 1982, a cycle of exciting operations began under the code name "Black Deer" - raids by long-range bomber aircraft of the Royal Air Force.
6300 kilometers each way. Dozens of air refueling stations. Night. Complete radio silence mode. The technology is not to hell - the planes of the 1950s … 1960s brought many problems: the avionics constantly junked, the cockpits were depressurized, the filling hoses and cones were cut off. And around for thousands of miles - an endless surface of water.
What lies ahead for them? Risk from meeting with Argentine Mirages? Or "friendly fire" from Her Majesty's ships? Did any of the command bother to warn the squadron of British bombers in the air?
It is possible that fate will present the pilots with other interesting surprises, because the Falklands War, in terms of organization, resembled a fire in a brothel - bad coordination and negligence, ingenious impromptu, frankly idiotic decisions and frequent cases of "friendly fire" - all this was regularly noted on both sides and sometimes led to completely comic situations.
This story does not set itself the task of covering all the amazing events that took place in the South Atlantic. We will not scoff at the disabled radars of British ships and the non-explosive bombs of the Argentine Air Force. No! It will be just a parabola about the exploits of basic aviation, and its role in the Falklands War - a topic that is rarely spoken out loud and that is usually forgotten to take into account in the works devoted to the Anglo-Argentine conflict of 1982.
Ascension Island
A tiny piece of land in the equatorial ocean that cannot be found on conventional maps. And there is not much to see there - several villages, the British garrison, the pier and the American Wydewake airbase.
Ascension island, known as part of the British overseas possession of Saint Helena, at various times served as a base for Her Majesty's ships going to the Southern Hemisphere; at the beginning of the twentieth century it was used as a relay center, during the Second World War it turned into an important transport hub - through it there was a continuous flow of military cargo from the United States to the African continent. It is currently home to the US Air Force base, a powerful communications complex and one of the five correction stations of the GPS space navigation system.
Ascension Island. The Wydewake Air Base Runway is visible in the southwest.
In 1982, the island played an important role in the Falklands War - the US Air Force provided the British with its airbase *, and the harbors of Ascension Island turned into a busy port - there was organized a parking, a refueling base and a point of restocking supplies and fresh water for ships of the British Expeditionary Force.
* American assistance was limited to the provided airbase on about. Ascension and delivery of 60,000 tons of ship fuel for the needs of Her Majesty's fleet. Also, information support and the provision of data from satellites of the Naval Ocean Surveillance System (also known as the White Cloud maritime reconnaissance system) is very likely.
The British clearly hoped for more - an attack on a country by the NATO bloc obliges the rest of the bloc to act as a "united front" against the aggressor (Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty). Alas, the general illogicality of that war and the extreme remoteness of the Falklands led to the fact that the "mistress of the seas" had to take the rap on her own.
Sea hounds
Already on April 6, 1982, three weeks before the start of active hostilities, two Nimrod MR1 patrol aircraft landed at Wideawake Air Force Base. The British got acquainted with the future theater of operations and organized regular ocean patrols - two sorties a week along a closed route with a radius of 750 miles in order to control the movement of ships in the Central and South Atlantic.
On April 12, three new British aircraft, the Nimrods in the MR2 modification, arrived on Ascension Island, followed by 20 Victor K.2 air tankers and a group of Phantom FGR.2 fighters to provide air defense of the fleet's rear base. Also, Wydewake airbase served as a "jump airfield" for VTOL aircraft "Harrier", which did not manage to take their seats on the decks of the aircraft carriers "Invincible" and "Hermes", and reached the South Atlantic "on their own."
Nimrod R1, 2011. Last flights
The appearance of tanker aircraft as part of the aviation group allowed the Nimrods to launch long-distance 19-hour raids to the Falklands and South Georgia. The aircraft were illuminating the surface and ice conditions in the combat zone, carefully "feeling" the endless water space with the beams of the Searchwater radar. Like ghosts, the Nimrods glided along the coast of Argentina, watching the movements of the Argentine fleet; conducted radio interception and search for enemy submarines.
Having muffled two of the four engines to save fuel, the Nimrods "hung" over the British squadron for 5-6 hours, providing Her Majesty's ships with long-range radar detection (in vain, the British "complain" about the absence of carrier-based AWACS aircraft similar to the American E- 2 "Hawkeyes" - this function was performed by the base "Nimrods", although not always successfully, due to their main specialization and relative small number).
They flew to the mission in full "combat gear" - six tons of combat load made it possible to take on board a universal complex of weapons, which included 1000-lb. Bombs, cluster bombs and Stingray anti-submarine torpedoes. Counteraction from the Argentine aviation was the least feared - due to the huge size of the theater of operations and the relative small number of forces involved, the chances of colliding over the ocean with combat aircraft of the Argentine Air Force tended to zero.
And yet, once the patrol "Nimrod" spotted an unidentified flying object by radar - having approached the target, the British saw an Argentine Boeing-707 in front of them - due to their depressing financial capabilities, the Argentines used conventional airliners for naval reconnaissance. The planes swung their wings at each other and flew in different directions.
Discharge of the Stingray anti-submarine torpedo
The Argentines were really lucky that time - from May 26, the Nimrods were equipped with air-to-air missiles. Of course, four Sideunders on the external sling could not turn the "fat" clumsy "Nimrod" into a fighter-interceptor, but they added a lot of confidence to the pilots: thanks to the presence of a powerful electronic system on board, the British aircraft could detect danger in advance and take a more advantageous position. And four missiles made it possible to stand up for themselves in close combat.
However, the Nimrods failed to use their weapons - neither the Boeing nor the Argentine Air Force combat aircraft appeared on the radars of the naval reconnaissance.
During the Falklands campaign, the Nimrods flew about 150 sorties from Ascension Island, each of which was accompanied by several air refueling. The whole epic was done without a single loss.
Contrary to the widespread misconception about the key role of American intelligence, which supplied the British General Staff with satellite images of the theater of operations, the main role in the information support of the squadron was still played by British aircraft of the basic naval aviation.
Black deer
While the "Nimrods" of Her Majesty's fleet were just settling in the new conditions, the British continued to build up the power of their aviation group on Ascension Island - at the end of April, five strategic bombers "Vulcan" B.2, as well as six additional aircraft were transferred to Wydewake airbase. refuellers on the basis of "Volcanoes".
The British plan was simple: "pinpoint" bombing strikes on the most important targets in the Falkland Islands, among which were highlighted:
- Port Stanley airport, which is actively used to deliver troops and reinforcements for the Falkland Islands garrison (the 1200-meter concrete runway was dangerously short for combat Duggers and Mirages, but its length was enough to land transport Hercules).
- Argentine radar stations.
The first combat sortie as part of Operation Black Buck 1 took place on April 30, 1982 - at 22:53 local time, a couple of Wukans packed with bombs broke off the Wydewake airbase runway and swayed gently in the Atlantic wind, headed for the open ocean. Following a whirlwind, 10 tankers rose, designed to provide a long-range combat mission.
One should not be surprised at such an irrational number of air tankers - the British used equipment of the 1950s level, in a depressing technical condition and in the absence of experience in conducting such operations. Any modern Tu-160 or B-1B will repeat this trick with just one or two refueling.
It should be understood that we are talking about the longest combat mission in the history of aviation - a flight to the End of the World, then only the ice shell of Antarctica. The RAF record was broken in 1991 - then the Yankees, for fun, flew to bomb Iraq from the continental United States, however, that's another story.
Scheme of refueling during the Black Buck 1 sortie
… Meanwhile, Her Majesty's bombers were gaining altitude. The engines hummed with tension, twenty-one 454-kg high-explosive bombs flashed alarmingly in the bomb compartments - the British intended to dig up the concrete runway of Port Stanley up and down.
Alas, the fatigue destruction of the structure of the leading Vulcan interfered with the plans of the British - the incoming air stream knocked out part of the cockpit glazing, the decrepit bomber turned around and immediately went to the forced one. The only "black deer" with the tail number XM607 (call sign "Red Six") went to carry out the mission with the crew of: Commander Flight Lieutenant M. Wiesers, Co-Pilot Flying Officer P. Taylor, Navigator Flight Lt G. Graham, flight-lt navigator-operator R. Wright, flight-lt radio electronic systems operator G. Prior, flight engineer R. Russell.
The first refueling took place 2 hours after takeoff: the bomber received fuel from one of the Viktors, four more Viktors refueled from four other tankers, who immediately turned on the opposite course. For the next 2 hours, the planes chained each other with precious fuel, until only two tankers remained with the Vulcan.
During the fourth refueling, the thunderstorm front demolished its adjustments - due to strong turbulence (or maybe due to a dilapidated state), one of the tankers fell off the refueling hose. They had to carry out unscheduled refueling from the car, with less fuel (the tanker with tail number XL189 was supposed to return to base immediately after the fourth refueling, instead he had to escort the bomber further south).
The last, fifth in a row, refueling took place 600 km from the coast of the Falklands, after which the Volcano remained in splendid isolation. The bomber descended to a height of 90 meters and rushed to the captured islands above, avoiding early detection by Argentine radars. When the coast was less than 100 km away, the Vulcan soared upward - gaining an ideal altitude for bombing of 3000 meters, it passed exactly over the target, dousing the airfield of Port Stanley airport with a hail of free-falling bombs.
Argentinean anti-aircraft guns were silent, the only radar turned on was crushed by a flurry of electronic interference - the Westinghouse AN / ALQ-101 (V) -10 electronic warfare container suspended under the Vulcan's wing showed good efficiency.
The eastern edge of the sky was already dawning when the weary Royal Air Force Vulcan finally headed back. Having gained an altitude of 12 kilometers, the plane was carried away from the cursed islands; the crew with horror went over in memory all the events of the past night.
And ahead, on the approach to Ascension Island, a whole tragedy unfolded - the unfortunate tanker XL189, which had given all the fuel to the bomber going on a mission, was now in distress over the ocean. The situation was complicated by the regime of the strictest radio silence - XL189 could not contact the base until the bombs dropped by the Vulcan fell on the target. Fortunately for the British, confirmation of the successful completion of the mission was received from the Falklands in time, and a new tanker was immediately dispatched to help XL189. The British managed to transfer fuel before XL189 nearly crashed into the ocean with empty tanks 650 km from Ascension Island.
Strategic bomb carrier Avro Vulcan. First flight - 1952. Removed from service in 1984
As for the bomber itself, for its safe return, four more tankers and the Nimrod naval base aircraft were required, which corrected the rapprochement of the Vulcan with a group of tankers.
According to a similar scenario, six more sorties were being prepared (Black Buck 2 … 7), two of which fell through for various reasons (weather and technical malfunction). Despite several raids in the absence of resistance, the British did not manage to seriously damage the runway of Port Stanley airport - a series of bombs tore out craters on the airfield, but only one or two bombs touched the runway itself. Also, some damage was caused to buildings, hangars and a control tower at the airport.
Aerial view of Port Stanley airport. Chains of bomb craters are clearly visible
Nevertheless, a certain effect was achieved: in a fit of sticky fear, the Argentines transferred part of their aviation to the defense of Buenos Aires - the Argentine leadership was seriously afraid of possible bombing of the capital.
In the fifth and sixth attacks, the British used American Shrike anti-radar missiles. The first "pancake" came out lumpy - "Shrike" missed the target and the attacked Argentine radar AN / TPS-43 continued to work properly until the end of the war. The second use of Shrikov was more successful - Black Buck 6 was able to destroy the control radar of the Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun.
PRR AGM-45 Shrike under the wing of the "Volcano"
However, on the way back there was an accident - the fuel receiving rod fell off and the bomber had no choice but to follow to neutral Brazil. The Vulcan, hull number XM597, landed on the last drop of fuel and was interned until the end of the war.
Despite a number of high-profile accidents and outdated equipment, the epic with British refuelers ended extremely well - the Volcanoes, Nimrods and Viktors carried out a total of over 600 air refueling, of which technical problems were noted only in 6 cases, and then, there were no disasters or human casualties. The only "formal loss" was the XM597 internee board.
Handley Page Vistor - tankers based on this aircraft operated in the Focklands.
First flight - 1952. The last "Viktors" K.2 were removed from service in 1993
Panorama of the airbase on about. Ascension
