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Originally Posted by tbtstt
Given the aircraft they used and the manner in which they used it, I'd say it was lucky they hit the runway at all!
Not to take anything anyway from the flight crews as there was some incredible flying and determination shown from all of them, but the mission(s) were more for propaganda than anything else. The damage to the runway was minimal and, if I recall, the Argentinians had the runway fixed in less then a day.
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True that the damage (115 feet across and 84 feet deep) was hastily filled, but the botched repair kept subsiding, and the crater meant that the Argentinian Mirage fast jets were never deployed to the Falklands as the Argies had originally intended, because the runway was no longer suitable. If those jets had been deployed, then there might have been greater loss of life and shipping on our side.
The further four Black Buck raids were nowhere near as successful on the damage front, but they confirmed the British commitment to the Falklands and the ability of the bombers to continue to reach the Falklands and even Argentina itself.
:SUBARMAN:
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