Smuj
I'm reluctant to comment, especially having had the pleasure of meeting Dougie for the first time at A***** C******'s 70th birthday bash on Saturday! Dougie with his 11 tours and me with my paltry 2, but why had your nav even switched the Loran on going to Gatow?
The only excuse I can think of is that maybe the next task from Gatow was to be across the North Atlantic without routing via Lyneham. I always found Loran C dead easy to use and on the odd occasion after losing one chain and before successfully gaining the other ( perhaps due to atmospherics or something ), I sat back and enjoyed the latest drink that the ALM gave me!
Decca, particularly the flight log, what a waste of space! I only ever used it while attached to JATE as it was good for track alignment in high-level parachute drops.