Ferrying the supplies
As the land battle to regain possession of the Falklands proceeded in late May 1982 and early June, the task of ferrying supplies to Ascension Island and then forward to the Falklands continued unabated, and the statistics mounted steadily.

By 20th May 1982, the Air Transport Force (VC 10s as well as Hercules) had flown over 10,000 hrs and by 28th May had totalled more than 4,000 sorties. On 3rd June, the Hercules alone had clocked up 10, 000 flying hours, the equivalent of some 3 million miles in the air.

Two days earlier, on 1st June, the new Commanding Officer of No 2 Para, appointed to succeed Lt Col H Jones (killed in battle and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross), had parachuted into the sea from a long-range Hercules, in order to go ashore in the Falklands.

By the time the first Hercules C Mk 1 (K) began operating out of Wideawake, in the first week of August, Argentine forces in the Falklands had surrendered (on 14th June 1982), but the demands upon the Air Transport Force continued unabated, since the British forces in the area still had to be supported.

During the period of the conflict itself, Lyneham's UKMAMS had handled no fewer than 3,732 aircraft, in the course of which more than 42,000 passengers were handled and over 41 million pounds (18 600 000 kg) of freight was loaded and offloaded - all without loss of, or serious damage to, a single aircraft, despite the extreme conditions under which operations continued.

Before Port Stanley airfield became available for use, the Hercules crews had become accustomed to flying missions averaging 26 hrs in duration: one on 18 June, set a new record for a Hercules of 28 hrs 4 min when an aircraft captained by Flt Lt Terry Locke of No 70 Squadron encountered headwinds in each direction, on a night drop of stores and spares to a Rapier unit outside Port Stanley.

On any flight scheduled to last more than 20 hrs, the crew was increased to six with an extra pilot and navigator prior to "Operation Corporate" the standard crew duty day was 16 hrs, including 2 hrs of pre-flight preparation.

The first RAF Hercules to land at Port Stanley was flown in on 24th June 1982 by Flt Lt Norfolk, following mine survey and clearance. It carried three members of the 11 man UKMAMS team that had been preparing for this particular task while waiting at Ascension, since an air movements flight, with equipment to load and unload aircraft, was an obvious first priority. Next day, Flt Lt Burgoyne flew in the first Hercules carrying an operational payload, including the former governor of the Falklands, Mr Rex Hunt.

The availability of Port Stanley changed the pattern of life for those members of No’s 47 and 70 Squadrons who had been based at Wideawake, but made little difference to the nature of the long-range flights. Although the duration of the flight was reduced to about 13 hours, it was still necessary to carry enough fuel to return to Ascension or, at very least, to reach Brazil should it prove impossible to land at Port Stanley very rapid changes occur in the weather, and cross winds of up to 65 kts (120 km/h) can close the runway to the Hercules, even in good visibility, at short notice. The support of Hercules and Victor tankers therefore remained essential.