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To mark the 30th anniversary of the Falklands

Conflict, author ROWLAND WHITE’S
bestselling book Vulcan 607 is being
published in two new editions incorporating
much new and previously unseen material.
Here we present just a handful of pictures
from the book

years ago
ABOVE: An atmospheric study of Vulcans XM607 and XM598 at sunset on the pan
at Wideawake Airfield, Ascension Island.
LEFT: A Wild Weasel Vulcan at RAF Waddington. A test-firing of the Shrike
installation was carried out by Flt Lt Martin Withers and his crew in Vulcan XM607
on May 27, 1982. Before firing the missile the Boscombe Down test pilot in the
copilot’s seat pulled down his visor and tightened his straps. To his left, Withers
did the opposite; both actions made it harder to get a photograph of the missile
streaking away from under the port wing.
BELOW: A Victor K.2 tanker accelerates down the runway at Wideawake, Ascension
Island. Although the island was British, the airfield was run by the United States
Air Force (USAF) as Ascension Auxiliary Airfield and used as a transatlantic staging
post. The name “Wideawake” came from the local name for a colony of Sooty Terns,
memorable for their noisy dawn chorus. In 1982 Wideawake was also a designated
emergency landing site for NASA’s Space Shuttle.

LEFT: A detail shot, taken in the hangar at RAF Waddington, of the Vulcan’s twin
AGM-45 Shrike installation. One of a number of modifications made to the Black
Buck Vulcans, the missile pylons were fashioned on site from steel girders by RAF
engineers. The missiles, not otherwise used by the RAF, came from USAF Europe Wild
Weasel squadrons in Germany. Two anti-radar missions were flown, one of which
ended with a Vulcan diverting to Rio de Janeiro after a refuelling probe sheared off.
BELOW LEFT: Quality not quantity. Although it was not used operationally, the
Black Buck flight also successfully developed a laser-guided bomb (LGB) capability,
including the ability to trigger prepositioned laser designators on the ground from
the bomber’s cockpit. The length added by the weapon’s seeker-head meant that
only three 1,000lb LGBs could be carried in the Vulcan’s bomb bay, instead of the
21 bombs normally carried.

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 RIGHT: “Through the round
window.” Taken from the captain’s
seat, this is the view from one of the
Black Buck Vulcans as it formates
on a 57 Sqn Victor K.2. The training
sortie on April 14, 1982, was the
first time Waddington’s Vulcans
had practised air-to-air refuelling
for decades.

LEFT: This is
the view from the
cockpit of an Avro Vulcan
en route to Ascension,
during a rendezvous with
a Handley Page Victor
tanker. Two Vulcans, flown
by Sqn Ldr John Reeve
and Flt Lt Martin Withers,
left RAF Waddington for
Ascension on April 29,
1982. A third, reserve
Vulcan, flown by Sqn Ldr
Neil McDougall, turned
back at this point. All
three were carrying 21
1,000lb bombs in their
bomb bays. Note the
vortex generators on the
Vulcan’s nose, designed to
disperse fuel leaks during
air-to-air refuelling.
ALL COURTESY SQN LDR JOHN REEVE

RIGHT: A 55 Sqn Victor K.2 lands

at Wideawake, streaming its drag
’chute. The RAF’s Victor tanker
force was the Service’s most vital
asset during the conflict. Without
the Victors there could have been
virtually no RAF involvement
beyond a handful of reconnaissance
aircraft in Chile and whatever
could be ferried down by ship (such
as the Hawker Siddeley Harrier
GR.3s and “Bravo November”, the
only Boeing Chinook to escape the
destruction of Atlantic Conveyor
by Exocet missile).

BELOW: Early on the morning

of May 4, 1982, Vulcan
XM607 returns to Ascension
after nearly 16hr in the air
during Black Buck 2. At the
controls was Sqn Ldr John
Reeve, who should have
flown Black Buck 1, but
as “Primary” on that first
mission, Reeve and his crew
were forced to return to
Vulcan 607 reissued
To mark the 30th anniversary of the Falklands Conflict,
base after a faulty window two new editions of Vulcan 607, Rowland White’s
seal made it impossible to bestselling account of the RAF raid that launched
pressurise the cockpit. Britain’s campaign to take back the islands, have
been published.
The paperback has been revised and expanded, with
approximately 50 pages of new material. This includes
a new introduction and feature-length accounts of
both the Vulcan’s emergency diversion in to Rio de
Janeiro during the Black Buck 6 raid, and the last six
months of the Vulcan’s RAF service as a bomber, when
44 (Rhodesia) Sqn trained for the possibility of attacks
against targets in mainland Argentina.
Also available, in a strictly limited edition of just 300
numbered copies, is a new slip-cased commemorative
hardback featuring specially designed new cover art,
all the additional material from the 30th anniversary
edition and a brand new eight-page colour section
containing previously unseen photographs and material.
For your chance win copies of the above, turn overleaf.
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