Crazy Brits

HMS Campbeltown

I've watched several videos this week by Jeremy Clarkson, the big buffoon from Top Gear. They have been quite enjoyable. Normally I have a hard time watching anything that lasts more than a couple of minutes. I think it's because I am easily bored. I don't know what it is about Jeremy's shows but I have no trouble watching them at all. I start watching one and before I know it an hour has gone by and it's over.
   I started with a series he made a few years ago called Inventions That Changed the World, and then I stumbled over the Greatest Raid of All Time, which reminded me of this and this.
    Today I started watching XM607 - Falklands' Most Daring Raid, and while the odds of success (low) and the chances of death (high) were pert near the same as the raid on St. Nazaire, it wasn't Jeremy telling the story and it dragged. I only got about half way through it. Still, it's a good story and one I hadn't heard before.

Preparations for the raid on the Falklands included some practice bombing runs on Garvie Island. Surprisingly, the only one Google turned up is in the Firth of Forth right up next to the Forth Bridge. This bridge is so overbuilt as to be near indestructible, but somehow I don't think even crazy Brits would think it was a good place for target practice. I did find one mention of a Garvie Island off the North coast of Scotland, and Wikimapia indicates there is a big military firing range there, so I think this is Garvie Island.

Update: I finished watching the film about the Falklands raid, Operation Black Buck. They burned 200,000 gallons of jet fuel getting one Vulcan bomber 4,000 miles from Ascension Island to the Falklands and back.

Update June 2022 replaced dead link to Greatest Raid