This forum has rather lost its way and become a deep discussion on the point of the raid rather than the ‘daring’ of the raid and its execution. For the Vulcan , Martin Withers and his crew achieved all that was expected of them, or rather that which was expected from a Vulcan crew since they were only the secondary team, thrown in the hot spot after a failure. The night refuels, which were as new to them as to the Victors and the complex formation procedures required high concentration in the cirrus of the South Atlantic. Some of the crews had to navigate using upside down North Atlantic charts as there were not enough South Atlantic charts. The refuels had to be on time and with correct transfers in spite of some equipment unserviceability. Fuel consumption turned out to be greater than predicted in the Vulcan causing rapid replanning of the recovery phase. Overall nothing like this operation had ever been planned let alone executed before and 75 aircrew had to get it right first time. Truly a Most Daring Raid.