Book description
It was to be one of the most ambitious operations since 617
Squadron bounced their revolutionary bombs into the dams of the Ruhr
Valley in 1943 . . .
April 1982. Argentine forces had invaded the Falkland Islands.
Britain needed an answer. And fast.
The idea was simple: to destroy the vital landing strip at Port
Stanley. The reality was more complicated. The only aircraft that
could possibly do the job was three months from being scrapped, and
the distance it had to travel was four thousand miles beyond its
maximum range. It would take fifteen Victor tankers and seventeen
separate in-flight refuellings to get one Avro Vulcan B2 over the
target, and give its crew any chance of coming back alive.
Yet less than a month later, a formation of elderly British jets
launched from a remote island airbase to carry out the longest-range
air attack in history. At its head was a single aircraft, six men, and
twenty-one thousand-pound bombs, facing the hornet's nest of modern
weaponry defending the Argentine forces on the Falkland Islands. There
would be no second chances . . .
Rowland White was eleven years old when Argentina invaded the
Falkland Islands and reading the papers everyday for news quickly
became his daily routine. He has been fascinated by the conflict ever
since, and in particular with the Vulcan raid on Stanley airfield.
He lives in London with his wife and two children, and works in publishing.
