Falklands40: The Black Buck Raids

Falklands40: The Black Buck Raids

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.


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.


You can visit RAF Cosford. Find more information here.


Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore


If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episoder(1493)

The Extraordinary Life of James Harley

The Extraordinary Life of James Harley

James Arthur Stanley Harley was a scholar, reverend, politician, and perhaps aristocrat. Born in a poor village in the Caribbean island of Antigua, he went on to attend Howard, Harvard, Yale and Oxfor...

24 Okt 202223min

TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!

TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!

On the 1st of November comes an immersive mini-series telling the story of one of the great discoveries of all time: the tomb of Tutankhamun. For more than 3000 years, the boy pharaoh lay undisturbed ...

24 Okt 20222min

Battle of El Alamein Explained

Battle of El Alamein Explained

Fought in the second half of 1942, the Battles of El Alamein were a series of climactic confrontations in Egypt between British Imperial and Commonwealth forces, and a combined German and Italian army...

23 Okt 202244min

The Battle of Trafalgar

The Battle of Trafalgar

On 21 October 1805, A British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson met the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Spain. Outnumbered, Nelson used innovative tactics...

20 Okt 20221h 4min

FORENSICS: The Beginning

FORENSICS: The Beginning

Death by tiger bites. Death by prodding. Death from sexual excess. Deaths from over-eating and over-drinking. The opening of graves.These are a few of the chapter headings in a 13th-century Chinese bo...

19 Okt 202233min

Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War

Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War

Born Mary Jane Grant in the colony of Kingston, Jamaica, in November 1805, Mary would later become a businesswoman, traveller and healer. Posthumously, Mary is best known as a Black British nurse.Gret...

18 Okt 202222min

Britain's Worst Prime Minister

Britain's Worst Prime Minister

Could Liz Truss be Britain's worst Prime Minister? As the political scene in the UK hurtles into further disarray, Dan gets together historians Tim Bale, Catherine Haddon and Robin Eagles to put forwa...

17 Okt 202231min

The Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis

In October 1962 the world came very close to annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the autumn of 1962, a U2 reconnaissance aircraft produced clear evidence that the Soviet Union and the...

16 Okt 202223min

Populært innen Historie

rss-dette-ma-aldri-skje-igjen
rss-katastrofe
historier-som-endret-norge
henrettelsespodden
rss-benadet
sektledere
rss-nadelose-nordmenn-gestapo
aftenposten-historie
historier-som-endret-verden
rss-strid-de-norske-borgerkrigene
rss-historiske-romanser
med-egne-oyne
rss-frontkjemperne
rss-gamle-greier
historiepodden
liberal-halvtime
historiepodden-ww2
vare-historier
sannhet-eller-konspirasjon
rss-historiepodden-ww2