Hi everybody:
Iīve just seen this thread. Iīm very pleased to greet a lot of old e-friends from Argentina and UK again.
I would like to add an info about 1st may raids against Stanley airstrip.
Argentinean Air Force (FAA) performed one mission on 26th of April in which Canberras Mk-62 involved would land at Stanley runway after attacking british shipping at Georgias to refuel and continue the return to the mainland. The mission was finally aborted when the planes were flying very close to the NW of Gerogias cause the surveillance KC-130H that was spotting the british force, advised that they had just got into Cumberland bay and the height of the mountains around it, made the attack impossible.
So, if FAA planned one mission with jets landing there to refuel, itīs quite probable that they had thought to repeat this kind of use. Why it didnīt happen?
In my opinion for the joint strikes on 1st may. They convinced FAA that there was no way to operate from the runaway without suffering losses. We must remember that a lot of damage was caused by Vulcan bombs as well as Sea harrierīs ones. Three Cessna 172 and one Islander were put out of action. A hangar burnt in flames as well as some fuel dumps.
But, was FAA trying to increase the lenght of the runway? It has been told in previous pages that some aluminium plates had been used to create a platform for the planes. In the Western end of the runway some of them had been placed too. The incident of the vessel "Córdoba" in a patagonian port made impossible to have them by sea. More plates could be transported, if it was decided, by C-130 (landing or by LAPES). Did the strikes on that day affected the FAA plans?
Some time ago, in another forum, one Argentinaīs armed forces member who remained a great part of the war around the runway, told that after these raids, they used the plates as a protection in another positions:
Imágenes del conflicto de Malvinas < fotos > | Página 368 | Foros Zona Militar
"En la cabecera oeste se colocaron algunas, pero cuando comenzaron los ataques se dejaron los trabajos, muchos de estos paneles se usaron para reforzar las posiciones. A dos de ellos les debo mi vida ya que pararon una esquirla que iba justo a mi cabeza en la noche del 29 de mayo."
Translation:
"In the western end some of them (the plates) were placed but when the raids started, works were abandoned, many of them were used to reinforce the positions. Thank to two of them Iīm alive at the moment, as they stopped shrapnel direct right on my head in the night of 29th may".
So, 1st may was important in the way that FAA acted in the rest of war respecting the use of the runway to deploy or operate high performance jets. But in the name of the truth, not only Vulcanīs one but both, RN SHar and RAF Vulcan.
Another little known fact is that the uncleanliness of the runway caused on 21st may one MB-339 ingested some small stones and its turbine was put out of action for the rest of war.
About the influence of Vulcanīs raid on the top cover missions of Mirage and Dagger over the island to protect the strikes missiones, I think it has no sense. In fact, Mirages continued those missions until the last day and Dagger until 8th may. The reason why they didnīt try to engage in dogfight was the result of the 1st may engagements with SHar. FAA High Staff thought there was no way to get the air superiority so although flights continued, the purpose was to atract british CAP to clean the way to the attack planes, but not to dogfight in combats in which they were worse than their opponents in training, weapons and planes.
Regards
PS: In the bottom of page 127 of this pdf from Ratenbachīs inform (in spanish), Brigadier Weber says that the runway was enlarged 200 meters with some plates transported from the mainland and others of the previous existing runway of Stanley:
http://www.anses.gov.ar/files/12%20-...20Tomo%201.pdf