Documenting the Black Buck Raid

Penguin News, September 2004

Rowland White was just eleven years old when the Falklands War was fought.  However, the events of 1982 clearly made an impression upon him as, twenty-two years later, he is now writing a book about the Royal Air Forces's first bombing raid on Stanley Airport.  Mr White, a publisher with Penguin Books by day, says that as a school boy, the war on the other side of the world was tremendously exciting and he followed it day by day.  Combined with a self-confessed life-long interest in aviation, he has chosen to write a book about the Vulcan air raid on Stanley Airport on 1 May 1982.  

Mr White describes the book as "... the story of a month", concentrating mainly on the period between 2 April and 1 May 1982.  "There's some build up to 2 April, including the reasons for the invasion in that period when South Georgia was occupied, when scrap metal merchants first arrived.  I'm talking about the behind-the-scenes debates at Whitehall and at the same time talking about what the aircrews were doing then; they obviously had no idea what was just around the corner.  It's also what the mood was in the Falklands as well - that feeling that something was impending.... "

The author says the 1 May raid was important for a number of reasons: "The fact this was the biggest RAF offensive operation since the Second World War and we hadn't really seen anything like it for a long, long time.  It also was a very interesting period for the RAF in that at the time, the officers running the service - Chief of Air Staff, the Commander of the Air Campaign - had all served in the Second World War so their roots were there.  Then of course, of the crews which took part, some of them went on to fly in the first Gulf War.  it straddled this very interesting period in time, a changeover of World War Two techniques and technology and satellites, global positioning and laser guns."

The 1 May raid was so extraordinary it was included in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest offensive mission in aerial warfare history.  As Mr White says, "It was an incredible effort ... "

In his research the author has spoken to "... everybody who was flying Vulcans who is still alive to talk to", including John Reeve, Martin Withers and their crews from the two Vulcans which took off on 30 April to fly the raid.  He adds, "There were six people on board each aircraft and I've spoken to all of them who are still alive.  I've also spoken to a number of the Victor crews who supported those Vulcan missions.  In many ways it was a Victor raid with Vulcans on the end of it.  There were twelve or thirteen Victors involved just to get one Vulcan to Stanley and so their story is just as important as the Vulcan crews."  

Higher up, Mr White has spoken to the Marshall of the Royal Air Force, Sir Michael Beetham, the Air Chief Marshal, Sir John Curtis, and base commanders at Waddington and Mareham.  He says that in an effort to "... get as many different perspectives on the story as possible and establish as accurate a consensus as I possibly can", he chose to visit the Falklands personally. 

"I wanted to get your (the Falklands) side of the story.  The story doesn't exist in isolation; it's simply an account of events for aeroplane obsessives unless one draws attention to why it is so important that it took place."  He says this was "driven home really powerfully" when he spoke to people in Stanley about "... just how traumatic having your country invaded is.  It's very difficult when you don't have experience of that to have any real understanding of how ghastly and unsettling and angering it is.  I got that very powerfully from talking to people; a real sense of the intensity with which they regarded the Argentinian occupiers and invaders..."

Mr White spoke to a variety of people, "... from different walks of life, different ages, all of whom were in Stanley at the time.  I've got lots of different perspectives but that shock and trauma was something which was common to all of them.  Without a sense of that, the story of the mission is a cold and sterile one, so that's why it was important to visit."  He says he was treated "incredibly warmly and generously" by people he met in the Falklands.

Mr White has his work cut out for him now, sifting through his collected research.  "I'll be writing for six months or so now.  I am anticipating it being published in time for Christmas next year...."  He says the volume of material he has collected is vast.  "Just this morning, a tape which one of the Victor pilots had recorded during the mission itself arrived in a Jiffy bag at work.  For someone writing the kind of book I am, I couldn't have hoped to come across something like that.  But here, this thing has arrived on my doorstep, it's fantastic."

He says his trip to the Falklands was valuable to his book, particularly a visit to Stanley airport, "... to actually see the one or two craters that still exist, patches on the runway, and talking to everyone will make a much, much richer and complete book."

Published in Penguin News on 3 September 2004 and reproduced with the kind permission of the Editor.

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