Days when East Anglia was chocka with USAF F4s with a secondary AD role, about 350 I recall. Used to launch in 8 ships for their range slots and check in with Neatishead to do interecepts before or after their slot times. One as target, 7 as fighters. Preferred intercept was the 135 as they considered it gave the best compromise for a frontal shot then re-attack. Used to cover the screen with chinagraph taking the brief....
"Sir, run 1, Ratch 41 will be target, 2 will do a 135 flythrough, 3 will do a 180 flythrough, 4 will do a 135 reatttack, 5 will do a 135 flythrough, 6 will do a 120 reattack, 7 will do a 135 flythrough and 8 will do a 180 reattack."
"Run 2, Ratch 43 will be target, 1 will do a 180 flythrough........"
You could rack up 40 intercepts in 30 minutes, and all squeezed into CH between Great Yarmouth and the FIR boundary.
Then there were the days they did their equivalent of a survival scramble and flushed everything into the sky. A creeping mass of blips slowly obliterating the screen...
WT Lightning supersonics up and down the FIR boundary along UA37. Target subsonic at 50K+ above the civies, fighter at 1.6M on a 180 at 25K, turn under the civies on a long roll out and phone LATCC to confirm it was 5nm clear of their traffic then clear him to zoom climb and wait for the telephone call...
The days when the Russians actually came. Bear Bravos doing practise bomb runs against the Danish, Dutch and UK sites with a 16 ship gaggle of various battle flights, QRA and tankers taking photos of each other in formation and exchanging telephone numbers abd addresses where to send them. Phoning LATCC to advise them the aircraft 20 north heading south was at the same level as their traffic. Declining to coordinate as I was not controlling them and, when asked indignantly who was, replying, "I think itīs Moscow Centre"..
Happy days.