The Last Of The Vulcans

[Aesop]

The Doolittle raid had some serious military effects.
None of them the direct results of the bombing.
In the documentary that was the source of the problem, the RAF was suggesting the raids had actually accomplished something militarily worthwhile, which is when Sandy Woodward opened fire with both barrels.

I'm totally open to anyone who says the Black Buck raids in the Falklands War were a great PR and morale booster.
But I don't think they contributed anything other than that. Also, more than one source has comments alleging that they were a horrendous drain on scarce RAF tanker resources that could have gone to direct support for the actual invasion, such that doing the raids at all was a mistake.

[Rusty Ray]

So, not a total cock-up then. Attacks made, damage done, moral boosted, Argies on the back foot questioning if the Uk would bomb their mainland next.....

I am not wearing rose-tinted whatsnames here, but be careful to dismiss the raids out of hand as total cock-ups. Also, as much as there is RAF bragging and PR exageration going on here, there is also a shitload of inter-service back stabbing going on. Ward has never had a good word to say about the RAF. Never will now that they binned his son from RAF flight school. Woodward is playing in that political game where each side is fighting for meager funds....

But look, I make a point of not getting into arguments on the interweb, its not like you can actually change anybody's mind is it? So I'm finished with this, I have said my piece. I'll let you have the last word if you want.

Rusty.

[Aesop]

No, the UK stated specifically and emphatically that there would be no bombing raids on the Argentine mainland.
(Which, they noted afterward, wasn't the same thing at all as saying that the SAS wouldn't sneak in and try to blow up Argie planes on the ground. )
The main effect of Black Buck was to point out to the junta that they had grabbed the tiger by the tail, and that the tiger's head was about to come into play.
And Sandy Woodward, in the full text I linked to, had no interservice bad blood in mind, or any shortage of good words to say about the dedication or bravery of the RAF, especially the pilots who undertook the missions, and issued the statement quoted when he was 80, and far beyond worrying about funding squabbles amongst the defence establishment he'd served for a lifetime. He died at 81 a year or so later, last year.

Let's just leave it at "The Vulcan is a pretty and graceful airplane".

[NVGdude]

In 75 years, the soviets never once managed to make enough spares for their generators, or their commo gear.

With the possibly exception of artillery shells, the Soviets never managed to make enough spares of just about ANYTHING. They could barely keep enough engines in the pipe to have 1/3rd of their tac air flight-worthy at any one time. The only real question is how much was intentional Potemkin Village and how much was bureaucratic ineptitude.

[John_in_Longview]

Back in 1978, I watched one of these take off from Anderson Air Force Base on Guam. It was spectacular in giraffe camo pattern and it left a thick black smoke streak down the runway.

The Vulcan was one of my favorite planes to watch every year at the Holiday in Dixie airshow hosted by Barksdale Air Force Base. Even after it stopped flying, they kept one on base along with about dozen other old aircraft.