Archimedes,
I think we all agree that those flag officers supported those missions, do you seriously believe they would say anything other than that? This was a joint operation and NO ONE should be trying to score points at the expense of the maximum effort against the common foe.
I get very tired of those that try to drive a wedge between the different services it is uncalled for and plain wrong. We should all pull together and perhaps try to find nice things to say instead of petty bickering. Those missions were RAF missions and unless they DIRECTLY interfered with the Navy side of the operation then of course the Admirals would say what they did.
What is being suggested by some folks is that just under 14,000,000Ibs of aviation fuel might have been an expensive price for the grand total of one dumb iron bomb hitting a concrete runway! (7 x 1.94million) If the RAF were happy with that then fine, but we could not supply enough aviation fuel to Wideawake and were acquiring it from our allies. Don't forget that those operations were taking up every single tanker in theatre which meant no other long range mission could be flown from that location until those tankers and their crews became available. No important crucial spare parts or equipment, no extended Nimrod surveillance flights. All these things had to wait until all those aircraft had returned and had all the necessary servicing carried out before getting these urgent items down to the fleet.
As I keep saying, if the RAF were happy with this and no valuable supplies or equipment were delayed getting down south then fine but I will tactfully suggest that the issue of resupplying the battle group may well have been an operational game stopper and perhaps a quiet word 'might' have been whispered in the higher corridors of that concrete frigate HMS Warrior. A quiet word in private whilst publicly toeing the quite correct party line. that is the way to conduct a war and I for one will suggest this is the way to conduct business.
There were numerous 'Daring' air missions by all three services and my own thoughts are this specific one was an amazing administrative exercise but I cannot get my head around its drain on valuable resources and how anyone can rate this specific operation as being the MOST 'daring' of them all, it just seems so wrong. (In my personal opinion)
We have seen how close air support missions flown by the Harriers might have been a far far greater morale killer and who knows the effects of the naval gunfire that kept the occupying force awake at night. The locals at Stanley were allegedly just curious about the Vulcan bombs thumping into the grass... at night, with nothing to see where they were from, they could have been weaponry from air, land or sea??? There was also lots of large guns keeping the locals awake and amongst those bangs we are asked to accept that a few extra exploding dumb bombs were going to have a significant effect on morale?? How does that compare with a daylight raid by Harriers that come screaming in at a great rate of knots at low level with rockets flying through the air. The noise of those aircraft is enough to get some soldiers messing their pants, the exploding rockets will perhaps just add to their fear.
I personally would suggest the latter will have a far greater effect on those poor souls on the receiving end?
Note
I am not for one millisecond suggesting any one specific service was flying those low flying Harriers, this was a joint operation flown by some VERY brave pilots from all of our armed services.
Apologies if I am not that coherent but hopefully folks can struggle through my witterings.