Memories prompted by the name of Viv Thomas.
The bow and arrow war, can't remember the Op name, but it was Vanatu, New Hebrides.
I was co pilot to Don Thompson, ex Belfasts, iirc. As alleged tactical heroes, LXX, we were positioned by 10 to Fiji, via Gander, McClellan and Hickam.
The only approach info we had for Port Villa was in narrative form in French. Without AIDU copyright we produced what we thought was the approach procedure in a format we were familiar with. On the final leg to Fiji we compared our efforts with those of the other crew, 47, Max Roberts, iirc. Fortunately the weather in that part of the world is generally good so our DIY charts were not required because our ops into Port Villa were daylight only.
The C130 slip pattern was organised so that the aircraft came south from Honolulu through the night, crossing the International Date Line, so we could do our daylight shuttle Fiji PV Fiji.
Viv Thomas turned up saying, in his v strong Welsh accent, that it was very fortunate that they had the right charts. "As we approached the IDL the chart said Sunday and it was Sunday. We crossed the line and the chart said Monday and it was Monday." I think I've got it the right way round. I await any correction from our Navs who might explain better the way charts are annotated either side of the IDL.
The sweeper Albert was operated to Hickam by an EU crew who then had to climb into the back for the next 3 long sectors home. No favouritism there then!
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