The ‘Most Daring Raid’? The Royal Air Force, Operation Black Buck and the Falklands Conflict, 1982

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As part of the joint response to the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands on 2 April 1982, the RAF launched Operation Black Buck, a series of remarkable long- range bombing raids against Port Stanley airport. However, claims as to the significance of the raids have varied from denunciation of the attacks as a failure when judged against bombing accuracy to declarations that the sorties ‘changed the outcome of the war’. This article analyses what the raids were for and what they achieved, arguing that attacking Port Stanley airport was a key element of the joint planning for the recapture of the Falklands and that the Black Buck sorties merit consideration as being amongst the Falklands conflict’s ‘most daring raids’.

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