During that period of time there were very few VOR's in Europe.  Most of the 
Airway flying was to these 5watt NDB's.  A person would almost be on top of 
the NDB before you could pick it up.  There were some VOR's scattered around
Europe,  we used to search for them and then make an intersection out of two 
of them (if they were available) over the NDB's.  That way if a person knew 
the radial of the VOR that was over the NDB,  it was something to use as a
back up.
And would you believe that in this day an age they have GPS which will give a 
position within a few feet.  GPS would have made life a lot easier if we 
could have had it then.
One night I came out of Tokyo for Midway Island.  Normally we used Loran 
close in to the sites but Midway did not have Loran.  There was an NDB at 
Midway.
We also used Celestial navigation.  On this particular night we had a high 
overcast so we could not use Celestial Navigation.  After ETP the Beacon at 
Midway went out so we were without anything.  There was a Station up in the
Aleutian Islands that could give us a DF position off our HF radio.
We took up a heading well to the left of Midway and intercepted a DF position 
which would give us a single line to take us to Midway.
All in a days work.
Another night I came out of Tripoli, Lybia.  It was about 9 P.M. local and I 
had just gotten airborne when the Navigator came up and told me someone had 
taken his Almanac and that we would have go back and get one.  Well, this is 
just not a case of dropping the gear and going back in.  We would have had to 
dump fuel and being a basic crew it would have  probably meant exceeding crew 
time by the time we sorted things out and started all over again.
I asked the Navigator if he could operated with the GHA of aires by getting 
one for each fifteen minutes,  which was just a matter of knowing the 
difference for each minute and then adding that difference to the one's we 
might be able to get from Tripoli Operations.  He said he could, so I called 
Tripoli TCC (Transport Control Coordinator) and asked if there was anyone on 
duty who could give us the GHA of aires for each 15 minutes all night long. 
It was our lucky night.  We had the information in about 10 minutes and we 
continued on our way.
It always seemed like every trip had something new to cope with.
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