Good post, Glojo. That is one of my favourite diagrams when trying to explain to people how a tanker plan works. You clearly know a lot more about the raid than I, so I'm very interested to read what you say. I think the only point we may differ on (on which we may differ, sorry
) is what they thought they were going to acheive by doing it. Similarly, to Navaleye. I still thaink that the hope was to demonstrate a frightening capability and divert forces back home. I had read somewhere that this was what happened; I just don't know how much difference it made.
Orca, it was a sight to behold. I knew a lot of the tanker guys quite well and they kept me up to speed on the appauling state of the Victors there. They had exploding HDUs, engines that wouldn't produce full power, avionics red lines that sounded positively dangerous , gens that didn't work, dozens of leaks, etc. But they kept flying them. Hats off to them. Oh, and Harry-the-Ace and his amazing C-130 guys - some of the best visual turning and burning I ever did.
Courtney