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Bomb Craters - Black Buck Flight 2 (Stanley)

Falkland Islands / Port Stanley / Stanley
 military, place with historical importance, interesting place, bomb/explosion crater
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Carried out by the Royal Air Force during the overnight hours of May 3rd/4th 1982, the second "Black Buck" airstrike on Port Stanley Airfield (then called Aerodromo Malvinas) was a near operational mirror of the first strike, though the second attack was focused on a different target area than the first. Once again launched from RAF Ascension Island shortly after dark on the 3rd, the Avro Vulcan bomber aircraft loaded with 21 1,000lb bombs each made the 3,400 mile flight to the Falklands successfully, linking up with their four separate inflight refueling points with Handley Page Victor aircraft and arriving over Stanley at approximately 0300hrs on the 4th.

Tasked with denying Argentine combat engineers the ability to expand the length of the main runway at Port Stanley/Aerodromo Malvinas Airfield, both aircraft released their bomb loads onto the Western end of the airfield from an altitude of approximately 10,000ft while flying in a Southwesterly direction. Both strings of bombs impacted and detonated successfully, leaving a pair of deep craters along the Western end of the airfield, with eight large craters lying directly in the path of the main runway. Both aircraft successfully withdrew from the area following the attack and returned safely to RAF Ascension Island, ending the second 16-hour and 6,800mi airstrike mission. There would be no further Black Buck bombing raids on the airfield until Black Buck #7, which took place on the night of June 12th/13th.

The tactical results of the second Black Buck raid were considered significant, as any Argentinian plans to expand the operational runway were put on hold until the craters at the end of the airstrip were filled in and compacted down to a suitable level for supporting aircraft operations. However, as with the first Black Buck mission, the airfield continued to operate light attack and transport aircraft until the cessation of hostilities.

Postwar, Royal Engineers filled in many of the craters created by Black Buck Flight 2 as part of the general expansion and creation of RAF Stanley airbase.

www.raf.mod.uk/history/OperationBlackBuck.cfm
www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2013/02/that-famous-runway-at-st...
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Coordinates:   51°41'3"S   57°46'48"W

Comments

  • kencummings
    Two Vulcan bombers from Ascension Island dropped 42 x 1000 pound iron bombs from about 10,000 feet.
This article was last modified 6 years ago