Originally Posted by
Georg1na
"although bombing Stanley early did keep the Argies from using it for fast jets."
No it did not! The runway was too short for fast jets.................also not one bomb hit it!!
One bomb did crater the runway. Argentine deception techniques made the crater appear larger for daylight photo-recce Harrier runs. Simple mud and earth ring on the runway gave the impression that the runway had suffered greater damage.
This crater caused problems with UK forces after the Argentine surrender. RAF News, April 26th 2002, has a piece from retired Air Commodore John Davis. Davis was the first commander of the operations wing at RAF Stanley. In relation to the runway crater from the first Black Buck mission Davis wrote "This rogue crater required a succession of repairs amid what soon became high intensity air operations."