In the Night G/A role in the early 70s the F4 was normally used in a 4 or 5 aircraft strength attack. The lead aircraft carried 6xLepus plus two underwing tanks and normally tossed the flares in pairs to straddle the target and provide three minutes of illumination. The number two carried three flares and filled the remaining stations with bombs, rockets and two wing tanks - this aircraft was the reserve flareship and, if required, tossed three single flares to straddle the target. Aircraft not flaring peeled left/right at the IP and turned in to deliver bombs/rockets when (if!) visual with the target.
The transit was flown at 500 feet above the highest obstacle near to track and the IP-target run was at 400feet. If this sounds too easy, just try it on a dark night using only map and stopwatch! When the IN was reliable it was comforting to have groundspeed and an accurate heading but the pucker factor was probably a lot higher than on TFR.
It was not surprising that the search continued for technology to make night attack more effective but in the early days the techniques used were pioneering and produced a credible ability in ideal circumstances to achieve a round-the-clock attack capability.