Ian
We tanked a Sqdn of Jav's to Singapore in 1961
I flew one of the Javelins on that detachment and have very clear memories of the larger than planned formations when one of the tanker squadron commanders (Wg Cdr Burberry?) changed the batting order a bit to solve problems arising from an imbalance of Javelin & Valiant numbers.
On Day 1, Coltishall to Akrotiri, once we reached the Mediterranean we had a Balbo of 10 aircraft, 5 Javs with a tanker each. On Day 4, we needed to get 6 Javelins from Karachi to Gan with only 3 serviceable Valiants. Th boss got all 9 of us airborne together, had us take all the fuel we could off 2 of the tankers & himself led the remaining vic of 7 aircraft to Gan. We then had an hour or two with 3 Javs on each wing of a Valiant whose white paint scheme was an ideal camouflage in the ITCZ cirrus we flew through.
I believe this in-flight refuelled squadron deployment to FEAF was the first such exercise and was well timed to get us out of the UK for the worst of the weather in the notorious winter of 1962/63.
Last edited by NutherA2; 6th Feb 2013 at 16:29.