THE grandly named 607 (Count of Durham) (Bomber) Squadron was part of the Auxiliary Air Force and was formed in 1930 at North Hylton near Sunderland.

The auxiliaries were just that: they were additional to the RAF and the men were part-time, many holding down good jobs in the industries of Tyneside and Teesside. Yet it was these part-timers – “hobbyists” as they were dismissively called – who faced the first action against the real enemy in the Second World War.

Robert Dixon tells the squadron’s story through the eyes of the pilots, although one of the most colourful characters is the Honorary Air Commodore, Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry of Wynyard Hall. In a controversial career, he became Secretary of State for Air and was so vehemently opposed to appeasement that he got bounced out of the Cabinet in 1935. He then went to Germany to meet Adolf Hitler and ended his career in disgrace.