Club contact: Andrew Grant
andygrantrwg@yahoo.co.uk

October 2026 – update

In October we had an interesting talk by David Davies

“The Falklands, a Daring Raid”.

David had visited us before with a talk on Concorde and noted some corrections
to the demise of Concorde which were revealed more recently.

A Brief History of the Falklands: The Falkland Islands’ history spans over 500
years, beginning with early European sightings in 1592, followed by French,
British, and Spanish settlements in the 18th century, British reassertion of
control in 1833, and the 1982 Falklands War between Argentina and the UK.

Just prior to the war , Argentina set up a weather station in 1976 and in April
1982 invaded the island. The island had 1800 inhabitants who wished to remain
British and not become Argentinian and so the raid to remain in British hands
commenced lasting 74 days in total with 255 British and 649 Argentinians
losing their lives.

This talk concentrated on the problems with the distance of 8000 miles between
the UK and The Falklands, the state of the equipment available emphasising the
ageing of the Bombers available and the refuelling activities necessary.

A fleet of127 ships were sent but took a long time to reach the island and comprised

43 Navy vessels, 22 Fleet Air Arm and the rest were Merchant ships.

The aircraft used at this time were the Comet, Valiant, Victor, Vulcan and VC10
but many of these were old and not completely functional and all required
refuelling several times even though the Ascension Island was used as an
intermediary base. As maps were not available in detail for the area old maps of
the Antarctic were used upside down to help navigation systems. During the
bombing of the Falklands airfield only one bomb actually hit the runway.

Things that were wrong: Planning done on the spot by Aircrew, only 3 Vulcan
bombers available of which only 2 could be flown, complex and difficult fuel
and refuelling, inadequate Navigational equipment and information.

Although the |UK was victorious. it does beg the question was it worthwhile as
we recently have had further interest by the Argentine. If the situation arose
again we still do not have the full capability particularly with current Naval and
Air resources. In 2013 99% of the Falklanders wished to remain a
UK Overseas Territory but sovereignty remains a challenge today.

 

Please contact me for any further information at the e-mail address above or on 02920252422.

Although our membership is growing, we still have room for new people and I would be glad to hear from any interested parties. We meet on the second Thursday of each month at the Llanishen Golf Club in Cardiff at 10am for coffee before starting the meeting proper at 10.30am. Lunch is available at the club and the great majority of the members stay for this excellent value meal.

Please note the e-mail address above is not hyperlinked so please enter my address manually.

Andrew Grant (Secretary)