Retirement

The ever decreasing supply of spare parts placed a heavy toll on the remaining Buccaneers, so that only five remained, with four aircraft operational with 24 Sqdn at the beginning of 1991. The aircraft became increasingly unserviceable and dependent on spares which could not be obtained. Such a force of aircraft could not serve any practical purpose and the decision was made to retire the Buccaneer from service. However, the SAAF's pilots who developed a high respect for these machines, were reluctant to let the aircraft go. In the end, all five were preserved and moved to museums around South Africa.  See serial numbers.

Gulf war

When Britain announced Operation Granby (the British contribution to the Gulf War) in 1990, the RAF's Buccaneers was not part of it. But low-level operations by the Tornado was hampered by the Iraqi defences. So the operations were conducted from medium level - this ensured crew survivability, but bombing accuracy was not satisfactory! On 23 January 1991, Lossiemouth was asked to assemble a force of six Buccaneers, to act as laser designators for the Tornados. The conversions needed were completed in just three days and the aircraft flew on to Muharraq, Bahrain. The Buccaneers acted as designators for the Tornados and even flew attack missions of their own, using various weapons from laser guided to dumb ordnance. Numerous bridges, airfields, command centres and even aircraft were destroyed - in total 216 sorties - not bad for an aircraft which wasn't intended for Desert Storm. Not well known is - some of the RAF's attack tactics during Desert Storm came from the SAAF, perfected over years of combat experience with the Buccaneer.

RAF retirement and the strange South African twist

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