"This is the untold story of the most daring bombing raid since The Dambusters." "Almost a one way ticket." "I didn't really see how we could survive it." "The RAF's opening attack of the Falklands war, designed to strike terror into the hearts of the Argentinians." "It was a secret, but very British, mission." "Monty Python couldn't have done it any better." "The crew has never seen action before..." "Gulp! "Yes, it's us now."" "I must admit, I didn't like the idea of doing it." "...and all they have is an ageing British bomber." "It had a computer." "This was driven by wheels, pulleys, bits of bicycle chain..." "To prepare, they learn techniques not used since World War Two." "And a lot of the work was done on a £5 pocket calculator bought in Swaffham market." "But it all seemed to be going so well." ""What can possibly go wrong?"" "And then it did." "It will be the longest bombing raid in history... if they succeed." "BIG BEN CHIMES" "'BBC News at six o'clock." "'The Falkland Islands, 'the British colony in the South Atlantic, has fallen." "'That's what Argentina say...'" "With the news that Argentina had seized the Falkland Islands," "Britain's military bases were put on high alert." "'At precisely 10.15 this morning, HMS Invincible, 'flagship of this extraordinary fleet, slipped her moorings...'" "At RAF Waddington, they watched Britain's mighty task force set sail to recapture the islands." "'The operation, and Britain's commitment to this task force, 'had begun...'" "But they didn't think they'd be seeing any action." "Our initial thought was, "Oh, deary me, but can't see us being involved."" "Like most people, I heard about the invasion of the Falklands on the television or, probably, through the radio news." "I had not the faintest thought that we would be involved." "Waddington had been once the home of Britain's nuclear V force." "But the nuclear deterrent had been handed over to the Navy, and now the V-Force was facing extinction, not war." "Its once-shining fleet of nuclear Vulcan bombers was just three months away from being broken up by bulldozers." "I think there was a feeling, in the '80s, it was the end of an era." "The Vulcans were closing down, they'd never been greatly improved and they weren't going to be improved now." "But all that was about to change." "'Prime Minister.'" "'It is the government's objective to see that the islands 'are freed from occupation and are returned to British administration 'at the earliest possible moment.'" "As Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher stirred the nation into a patriotic frenzy, behind the scenes, head of the RAF, Sir Michael Beetham, went to see her with a cunning plan." "She was very enthusiastic and I said, "We've got some more work to do, but hopefully we can do it."" "Beetham's plan was breathtakingly bold." "To send a lone Vulcan bomber 8,000 miles down to the Falklands to blow up the runway at Port Stanley." "At one stroke, it would stop the Argentinians using the runway as a base to attack the Task Force and it would put the fear of God into the Argentinian people that the Vulcan might be back to bomb them." "'Attention, attention, attention." "This is an operations alert." "'Scramble, scramble, scramble.'" "But there was a hitch... the Vulcan itself." "Back in the coldest days of the Cold War, the Vulcan was state-of-the-art." "It could be in the air within two minutes delivering nuclear bombs into the heartlands of the Soviet Union." "But, devised in the late 1940s by the designer of the Lancaster, the sinister tin triangle was now showing its age." "Oh, it was a very nice aircraft." "High tech, I'm not quite so sure." "High tech, maybe, when it came into service." "I mean, I can certainly remember showing ex-bomber command people over the Vulcan in the '80s and they'd say "Oh, look at that, Fred," ""we had that over Berlin in 1944"." "The technology in the Vulcan was very old." "They said they had a bombing computer." "This was driven by wheels, pulleys, bits of bicycle chain etc... there was nothing electronic in it." "On Good Friday, RAF Waddington was told to prepare for war." "At Squadron level, people were starting to think" ""Yes, there just might be the final hurrah coming up here"." "Suddenly, we were making this change from a peacekeeping role... albeit a rather strange one involving nuclear weapons, but a peacekeeping role - to one that would be a war-fighting role." "It was vital they destroyed the runway before the task force reached the Falklands." "That left them just three weeks to get ready." "But the challenges that lay ahead to get the old Vulcans fit for action looked insurmountable." "There seemed to be so much that the Vulcan lacked and the crews lacked." "When we were told that we were going to be flying for thousands and thousands of miles over the sea, the Vulcan was never really designed with that sort of mission in mind." "The biggest hurdle was the sheer distance to the Falklands and back... 16,000 miles." "They could use the British island of Ascension as a midway base, but that still left a round trip of 8,000 miles to the Falklands... double the Vulcan's maximum range." "The only solution was to refuel the aircraft in the air." "But no-one had attempted this in a Vulcan for 20 years and its refuelling system no longer worked." "Engineers raced to unblock the pipes and refit probes." "They tore through rusty junkyards and scrapped aircraft, looking anywhere to find vital parts." "Unless we could find them, the sortie was going to be a non-starter - we couldn't get there." "One crucial item was found in the crew room, being used as an ashtray." "While the engineers patched the aircraft together, the crews assembled to discuss mid-air refuelling." "Somebody wisely said, "Anyone ever done it before, then?"" "Uncle Neil, who was a little bit older than the rest of us, said," ""I had a go and it was bloody awful, I tell you." ""It was the most dangerous thing I've ever done."" "And we said, "Oh, yes, Neil." "Tell us more."" "But he said it was so dangerous that's the reason the Vulcans stopped doing it, which, yeah, was a great start, really(!" ")" "Carrying out this dangerous manoeuvre meant flying within feet of the refuelling tanker." "To take fuel, the pilot then had to try to stick the Vulcan's probe into a metal basket trailing behind." "There's all sorts of expressions to talk about air to air refuelling." ""Two insects mating in flight", is one of them." "It is, of course, arranging mid-air collisions between aircraft." "Three of the top Vulcan crews were selected for training, but only one would fly the mission." "The RAF did not have enough resources to refuel more than one Vulcan all the way to the Falklands." "The chosen pilots were Squadron Leader Alistair 'Monty' Montgomery... a charismatic and tough Scotsman..." "There was a rumour mill, mainly started by fighter pilots, that only fighter pilots could do this stuff, of refuelling in the air." "So we thought, "Hey, this is our chance,"" "and we were desperate to have a go at it, believe me." "...Squadron Leader John Reeve, also eager to have a crack at the runway..." "I, personally, had absolutely no moral qualms whatsoever about doing this, and in terms of introspection," ""Are we going to get away with this?"" "Well, compared to having a go at Leningrad," "Port Stanley every time for me, please, if you don't mind." "...and lastly, the most junior of the bunch," "Flight Lieutenant Martin Withers." "I really, genuinely thought that I was going to get through my whole time in the RAF without getting involved in any form of conflict and without actually dropping a bomb on anybody in anger, and, I must admit, I didn't like the idea of doing it." "But do it they must." "And learning to refuel was just the first of many techniques they were going to have to master before they set off for war." "INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER" "Closing up behind a big tanker is really quite straightforward, but to actually get the probe into the basket was another matter." "I spent the next 15 minutes missing to the left, missing to the right, missing below..." "'Two... one, in..." "No." "He's out.'" "The crews soon find ways of describing the experience." "Stabbing a wet doughnut, shoving very warm spaghetti up a cat's backside..." "'Two... one." "(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)'" "Endless fun." "Frustrating until you get the hang of it." "In peacetime, this would have taken months and months of intensive training." "But they only have two weeks." "And if they fail, the task force would be at the mercy of Argentinian jets." "With the Royal Navy Task Force just two weeks away from the Falklands, the pressure was on." "In charge of the Vulcan operation to bomb the runway at Port Stanley was Wing Commander Simon Baldwin." "He lived on a diet of bacon sandwiches and pipe tobacco." "I can't over-emphasise how quickly things were happening." "I had no time to think, we were just reacting." "We were doing things and trying to make things work." "Baldwin sent the crews on practice runs to attack the island of Garvie, off the coast of Scotland." "The crews had been skilfully trained to drop nuclear bombs, but it had been ten years since they had done any conventional bombing." "Now they had to relearn techniques that dated back to World War Two, using the same iron bombs dropped from Lancasters." "We dropped these bombs and you felt them go off underneath you." "It was pretty exciting stuff, to do that without anyone shooting at you." "The crews loved it but the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds were, understandably, not happy." "The RSPB were absolutely devastated that we were wiping out seagulls at Garvey Island and requested that we stop doing it immediately." "We were trying to go to war but they didn't seem to appreciate that." "We felt very sorry for the seagulls." "He lied!" "LAUGHTER" "The crews were going to have to hit a runway just 120 feet wide." "This demanded a degree of accuracy not normally required with nuclear bombs." "With the Vulcan, the accuracy that we had, we'd be quite lucky to hit the runway at all." "And while the crew might miss the target, it looked increasingly likely that the Argentinians would hit the Vulcan." "When Baldwin received the latest intelligence on the Air Defences at Port Stanley, it made sober reading." "The dossier revealed that the Argentinians had state-of-the-art weaponry, including the Tiger Cat, built by the British." "We were going in against the Argentinians with really modern radar laid guns, big shells, explosive shells that they could fire at, goodness only knows how many per second, which could easily shoot a Vulcan out of the sky." "And going in at low level at night," "I didn't really see how we could survive it." "Crews were told to make their wills." "You can't get round the fact, it's a war." "You write out your will and you take the dog for a walk around Harmston village and think, "I wonder if I'll ever see that place again?"" "Right, should you be captured at all, they will give you the opportunity to write a letter." "And in case they did survive, and were captured, they were taught how to write secret, coded messages and what to do if they were paraded in front of enemy TV cameras." "I found it quite amusing when they said, if you're telling the truth scratch the right-hand side of your nose." "If you're telling a lie, under duress, scratch the left side of your nose." "We have to recover those islands for the people on them are British, of British stock and they still owe allegiance to the crown." "TV:" "As the Task Force continues southwards, 'the Government has given more details for merchant ships..:" "With the Task Force a week away from the Falklands," "Mrs Thatcher still hoped that regular TV updates showing that the British meant business, would be enough the send the Argentinians packing." "TV: 'The troops go through a weapons drill, 'in readiness for a possible landing on the Falklands." "'The Royal Air Force has shown pictures of their Vulcan bombers, 'converted from the nuclear bombing role to conventional bombing:" "Exhausted from the round-the-clock training, the Vulcan crews found that their supposedly secret mission was part of that message." "Watch out, the Brits are coming!" "To reach the Falklands they would have to fly the bombers from Ascension Island, refuelling them in mid-air." "Our attitude was, "Why don't you give them the date and time," ""you've given them everything else."" "On Monday 26th, Sir Michael Beetham, head of the RAF, arrived to rally the troops, and told them the mission was on." "I really wanted then for the crews to see me and to wish them well." "They were after all embarking, as I told them, on a dangerous mission." "But they could do it." "Reeve volunteered for the mission." "For once, I put myself forward a little bit." "Normally I'm not bothered." "Give me an aircraft to fly and I'm perfectly happy." "I remember saying, "There is no way you can keep me out of this."" "Reeve landed the top job." "Withers was told he would also be flying, but only as back-up." "Monty was sent to oversee the operation from Ascension." "Soon they would be off to war." "Saying "goodbye" was not easy," "It's a thing I'd never done before, I'd never said goodbye and gone off to war." "I know it sounds very dramatic but it was possible that we might not return." "It was probably ideal." "I saw her for about half a minute, just time to say "bye-bye."" "The strangest thought crossed my mind." "You know, my father was in the war, in the Navy during the war and he didn't see my mother for years on end." "And I thought, you know, in just a little way this was what tens of thousands of people have done before and now it's my turn." "The night before we fly down, obviously, you chat to the wife." "Pat was tremendously supportive and I had no qualms at all about going." "If anything happened to me, she'd look after the kids fine, there was no problem at all there." "The two Vulcan crews prepared to take off for their mid-way base on Ascension Island." "Please remove all traps and ground equipment." "OK, air brakes and rolling." "It was a miracle." "In just three weeks, Waddington had gone from a peacetime base onto a full war footing." "Transforming near-obsolete bombers into new fighting machines." "Eight hours later, the two Vulcans were circling the British island of Ascension." "This remote volcanic outpost was a perfect base for the attack on Port Stanley." "Ascension Island was amazing, it was just unbelievable." "I still can remember circling round and seeing this strange-looking island, the volcanic island." "Looked like one big slag heap on the Western side, very unattractive." "The place was heaving, absolutely heaving." "It really was something where something was happening and you think, "I'm pleased to be part of this."" "Ascension had become the busiest airport on the planet." "The Vulcans arrived to find a huge armada of 12 Victor aircraft." "The refuelling tankers to take the Vulcan down to the Falklands." "That evening, with a 50th birthday party to celebrate," "Withers and his crew hit the town." "♪ Happy birthday to you" "♪ Happy birthday to you... ♪" "We had to find somewhere to celebrate and we found more than one place." "We had a few drinks and we had a few drinks more and suddenly I'm 50 years old." "We must have got to bed, half past two in the morning." "Waking up with a little bit of a hangover the next day." "ENGINE NOISE" "Later that morning, the RAF sent a signal." "The mission, code name Operation Black Buck, was on for 11 o'clock that night." "It was time for one final check on the Vulcans' payload." "Suddenly you're looking at 21,000 bombs and you realise that that means business." "It was going to take a staggering 11 Victor tankers to refuel the one Vulcan on its 8,000-mile round trip." "Group Captain Jeremy Price led the team to thrash out a plan." "The refuelling plan was very, very complex." "It was something that had never been tried before and a lot of the work was done on a £5 pocket calculator bought in Swaffham market." "The plan is that the vast armada flies to the first refuelling point." "Half the Victors refuel the other half, one Victor refuels the Vulcan and then those aircraft return to base." "The procedure is repeated at the next refuelling point and again, until there is just one Victor left to refuel the Vulcan before its final run-in to the target." "And it was really a question of Victors refuelling Victors refuelling Victors and it went on and on and on." "All the time the formation was being reduced as one Victor had given all its fuel and had to go back to Ascension." "We had never seen anything like this refuelling plan!" "The real unknown was how much fuel that Vulcan is going to burn." "We used the best information we had." "We had a horrible nagging feeling that it might not be good enough." "If they had got the plan wrong, aircraft could end up ditching in the freezing South Atlantic Ocean with no hope of rescue." "The aircrews assembled for the final briefing on Ascension Island." "OK, gentlemen, this is a secret briefing..." "In a few hours, the mission to bomb the runway at Port Stanley would be taking off on the 8,000 mile round trip." "Can everyone hear me at the back?" "All right." "Well, as you know, the reason we're here is to have a look at the whole refuelling operation..." "It was the most complicated refuelling plan I'd ever seen." "To be honest, I picked up, probably, 60 percent of what was going on." "I couldn't take it all in - it would have taken me ages, but I was able to turn to Dick Russell and say to him," ""Do you understand that?"" "And I had to draw a breath and say, "Well, yes, I do,"" "with my fingers crossed behind my back." "And these are the final points to remember..." "And from that, cup of tea, disperse out to the aircraft, ready to go." "For lead John Reeve and his crew, it would be a hard 16 hours ahead." "For reserve Martin Withers' crew, it was supposed to be four hours and back for a beer." "But that's if Withers could get into the air." "He already had a problem." "The microphone in his helmet - his "bone dome"... had stopped working." "My first time going to war and my bone dome doesn't work, and I like my bone dome, I get a sense of security in it." "In the back, Gordon Graham, the navigator, was also having to make do." "The RAF didn't have any maps of the South Atlantic." "Our navigator finished up using a map of the northern hemisphere turned upside-down." "Gordon changed the Azores into the Falklands." "When we started the launch on that night," "I felt that we had about a 40 percent chance of success." "There was almost a silence." "But you could feel this air of expectancy." "And then... "bang"." "JET ENGINE WHINES" "A Victor started up." "And another." "And another." "ENGINES ROAR" "And the noise grew and grew and grew." "ENGINES THUNDER" "And then there was a sudden change in the noise, and it was the first Vulcan starting." "ENGINES RUMBLE" "The Vulcan just looked fabulous, menacing, full of authority as it taxied on to the runway." "I mean, I was desperately sorry not to be in it." "But I had a lump in my throat as it went off down the runway, followed by the second one." "'2306, second Vulcan..:" "(RADIO CHATTER)" "And then they were gone and there was silence." "In radio silence, to make sure there were no listening ears that could alert the Argentinians, the vast armada set off for the Falklands." "But in the lead Vulcan, it wasn't about to be Reeve's night." "Monty Python couldn't have done it any better." "It all seemed to be going so well." "The engines have started, the aircraft's working, what can possibly go wrong?" "I could hear this hissing sound from the window." "'Stand by..:" "We got airborne, the whistling got worse and the indication said the aircraft isn't pressurising." "And I thought "No, no." "It's happened once before" ""in nine years on the V Force, it can't be happening now,"" "and it was." "With no cabin pressure, Reeve and his crew will slowly freeze and run out of oxygen." "There's no official drill of what to do, but you try all the things you can think of." "We had sandwiches in polythene wrapping." "I got the polythene off and tried to jam that in." "I think I tried to jam a flying jacket, anything in there to try and stop it." "'That's..." "That's not working:" "Of course, we had to turn back, then." "Obviously, not a happy bunny." "Just four minutes after take-off and it's all starting to unravel." "'Returning to base." "'Post commander, primary Vulcan's unserviceable:" "Reeve breaks radio silence to say he's returning to base." "On the back-up Vulcan, Withers also hears the transmission." "'Post commander, primary Vulcan's unserviceable:" "We were now the primary Vulcan." "We were on, and there was a deathly silence." "Nobody actually said anything." ""Gulp." "Yes, it's us now."" "So I came up with a real, sort of, Boy's Own statement, like..." "Looks like we've got a job of work to do, fellas." "The success of the whole mission now rests on Withers and his crew." "Withers starts refuelling with the Victors." "It's the first of four contacts over the eight-hour journey to the Falklands." "But when the empty Victors start returning to Ascension, they make a terrible discovery." "The aircraft are so low on fuel, they have barely made it back." "The Victors coming back made it quite clear that the Vulcan was using more fuel than we had calculated." "We were worried, I was worried." "With not enough fuel, the whole mission is in jeopardy." "But in radio silence," "Withers in the Vulcan is blissfully unaware of the impending disaster." "We weren't really keeping an eye on how much fuel we'd got, and it's a bit like, you know, in a motor race, you know." "You just go round, and as long as you've got fuel in the tank that's all you're worried about." "Then, with two refuellings left, the sortie hits a major electrical storm." "It's always the same." "When the chips are down, you run into turbulence, and did we run into turbulence." "STORM CRASHES AND RUMBLES" "And it's now that the last two remaining Victors must refuel." "Flying in the rear Victor, Bob Tuxford knows if he can't get fuel, the mission is over." "I was becoming acutely aware that the whole success of the mission now rested on the shoulders of me and my crew." "'OK, I need to back off a little bit." "'Christ, this is difficult." "'It's all over the bloody place:" "A miracle happened." "'Contact.'" "I couldn't believe it." "Not only did he get in, he stayed in." "'Yep, fuel flows again." "That's it.'" "Bob Tuxford, I take my hat off." "Good job, Bob." "But as the as Tuxford's Victor completes refuelling and flies out of the storm, the crew make an alarming calculation." "There isn't enough fuel." "We were well short, to the point where we wouldn't actually be able to make the island back at Ascension." "Tuxford asks the crew what they want to do." "'Right, we either turn back now, pretty sharpish, 'or at least press on in the knowledge 'that we've got to come up with some sort of alternate plan." "'I need you all to speak now, and give me your view 'whether we continue or turn back:" "Without hesitation, each one of my four crew members said that," ""We've come this far, we'll press on."" "Their decision means they may be forced to ditch with little hope of rescue." "Six and half hours since leaving Ascension, it's time for the final refuel." "But Tuxford in the Victor can't risk breaking radio silence to tell the Vulcan there's barely enough fuel to complete the mission." "Everything seemed to be going well, taking fuel quite normally, and then, much to my surprise and Dick's surprise sitting beside me, they put the light on." "'OK, Ernie, give him the lights:" "The red light flashed, and so we had to break." "If the red light flashes, you break." "Come what may, you break." "'Bloody hell." "How much have they given us?" "'" "But I said, "This must be a mistake..."" "But I said, "This must be a mistake..." 'About 5,000 pounds, captain. ' ...cos, you know, we still needed about another 7,000 pounds of fuel." "We will have to abort the mission." "The Vulcan had expected a full tank but they've had all the fuel the Victor tanker can spare." "So we broke off." "I was absolutely amazed and actually very annoyed because I couldn't believe they could do that to us." "As the Victor turns to head back to Ascension, a furious Withers briefly breaks radio silence." "We received two words..." "'We're off:" "...which sounded like, "We're off."" "'What does he mean, "We're off"?" "Was he off to attack the target or was he off to Ascension?" "We felt dejected." "We felt that all our efforts had been in vain." "In the Vulcan, Withers faces the hardest decision of his life... whether to give up the attack, or press on and gamble the lives of his crew." "Captain Martin Withers and his crew are within striking distance of the runway at Port Stanley, but their Vulcan bomber doesn't have enough fuel to get back to base." "In theory, we should have then gone back to Ascension and aborted the whole attack." "But because we'd come this far and the whole Force had come this far," "Martin decided we would carry on." "I made it clear that that was what I wished to do." "Nobody tried to say otherwise so we pressed on." "It's time for the attack." "Withers takes the Vulcan down to 300 feet to get under the Argentinean radar." "But navigator, Gordon Graham, can't work out where they are." "All of his navigation systems are showing different positions." "If we don't know where we are relative to the island, we could bomb anywhere." "We could bomb the town itself." "They switch on the ground scanning radar to get a fix." "But this risks the Vulcan being picked up by the Argentine defences." "On the radar screen there was nothing." "Withers chances taking the Vulcan higher to see if that will help." "The Falkland's Islands appeared in the middle of the radar screen, only about a mile away from where we'd thought we were." "However, just as we got up to about 500 feet" "I suddenly picked up a search radar." "The Argentineans have spotted them." "But there's no turning back." "Withers must now climb up for the run in." "Pulled up using full power, fairly steep climb to get to 10,000 feet." "We had about a 20 mile run in." "We felt very vulnerable sitting there, they know you're there." "Trying to jam, jamming." "I'd pulled the visor covers down, we thought the flak would come at us like you see in the war films, we hadn't done this before." "Getting fairly close, we got a lock-on from one of their fire control radars." "So I thought, "What can I do?"" "I switched on the Dash 10 jamming pod so they'd be fooled into thinking we were in a different position." "I opened the bomb doors early to make sure there wasn't a problem with the doors." "Nav radar Bob Wright checks the antique bombing computer." "Its pulleys and bicycle chains must calculate to the split second when to release the bombs." "As we got to about two miles away, and the airfield was still lit up, that's when the bombs started to drop off." "Three, two, one..." "And they dropped off at half second intervals, 21 bombs." "From 10,000 feet it'll take 20 seconds for the bombs to hit the ground." "Once the last bomb went, Martin pulled the stick, climbing turn to the left, to get away from any Argentinean air defence threats." "The sky opened up a short while after that with every gun blazing." "And as we climb, you could see the flashes, from the bombs going off." "Now I felt a bit sorry for the people on the ground." "I mean, not every day in your life you drop live bombs on somebody." "We had no idea, whether the bombs had hit the runway." "It was a real, sort of, "All over."" "You know, "I'm safe now."" "Even though, yet, we still did have quite a major problem to cope with." "They still have to find their refuelling tanker in thousands of square miles of Atlantic and they have only a few hours of fuel left." "Just as they thought they were out of range of Argentinean missiles..." "My radar warning receiver front sector lit up with threats." "Unsure whether they are friend or foe, every anti-aircraft weapon of the British Task Force is now trained on the Vulcan." "HOOTER SOUNDS" "I said a little prayer, hoping that somebody on board the ships was aware that we were a friendly coming towards them." "I opened up on my radio, passed the pleasantries of the day, good morning, and I passed the codeword Superfuse to let them know that we considered the attack had been a success." "The Task Force stands down while the codeword is also picked up 4,000 miles away back on Ascension." "Suddenly out the blue somebody shouted "Superfuse!"" "I mean, fantastic." "I mean, there was elation everywhere." "In Bob Tuxford's Victor, rapidly running out of fuel, the Vulcan's transmission tells them their efforts were not in vain." "This is Victor Delta, Superfuse." "They've done it." "There was elation in our aeroplane, the whole mood changed." "Let's hear it for the tin triangle." "And, after all, we were able to say," ""Well, he's done it." "He's done the job."" "But, time is also running out for the crew of the Vulcan." "There's no sight of the refuelling tanker they're to rendezvous with." "The co-pilot stated he'd never seen a Vulcan flying with so little fuel in its tanks, which was quite a frightening situation to be in." "We knew we had to make contact, if we didn't make contact we were in the sea." "We had immersion suits to keep us dry." "We had dinghies, we had little radios but I don't think any of us would have survived unless a miracle happened." "The next thing I knew the Victor rolled out right in front of us." "I can't tell you how that felt, I can't tell you." "To me, at the time, it was the loveliest sight in the world." "Just in time, Tuxford's Victor was also met by a refuelling tanker." "There were quite a few whoops and hollers in the aeroplane as people celebrated." "JOYOUS CHATTER" "And as the Vulcan neared Ascension, it was time for them to celebrate too." "Prior puts on Chariots Of Fire." "I put that on the AEO's tape recorder and we played it at full blast." "CHARIOTS OF FIRE PLAYS" "They'd survived." "Withers and his crew had achieved the longest bombing raid in history." "Thanks to 13 Victor tankers and 65 Victor crew." "Not least to the final Victor that had sacrificed its fuel to get the Vulcan on target." "There to meet Martin Withers with a can of beer was the pilot..." "Bob Tuxford." "As I fought my way through the crowds, I'm not sure that Martin even recognised me in the first instance." "But nevertheless he received the can of beer nicely, and I decided that we'd done our bit that night, went off to our billet and the rest was history." "We didn't hear whether we'd hit the runway until at least 24 hours later." "We dropped 21 bombs and the first one to explode was on the runway." "The bomb put an end to Argentinian ambitions to use the runway for fast jet attacks on the Task Force." "But it had been a close call." "Just half a second later in releasing the bombs and they might have missed altogether." "But the impact of that one bomb was to be felt far beyond Port Stanley airfield." "We had made a statement." "We had made a huge statement that we were not giving up the Falkland islands." "Once that first bomb tumbled out of Martin's bomb bay, it's a declaration of war." "And really it was the opening shot of hostilities, and there was no going back." "For Sir Michael Beetham, the raid had achieved its ultimate goal." "The effect on the Argentinians was that they could see that if we could do that, we could also do much more." "Frightened that their cities would be attacked, the Argentinians withdrew their fighters to the mainland." "The result was fewer Argentinian air attacks on British troops and ships." "But for the Vulcan the Falkland's war was it's first and last action." "Six months after the war it was scrapped." "Wither's Vulcan, 607, now rests in peace beside the runway at Waddington, where almost 30 years ago it raced off to the Falklands." "Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd"