Pictures taken by a photographer from The Northern Echo helped to throw light on the work of part of a lesser known service which left behind humble beginnings to tackle a vital coastal protection and tracking role over the North Sea. CHRIS LLOYD reports.

MANY parts of the home defence corps feel that their efforts in the Second World War have been overlooked. The Aycliffe Angels, the Bevin Boys, the Women's Land Army...

The Home Guard have even been mocked - quite brilliantly - by the Dad's Army television series.

The Auxiliary Air Force was ribbed when formed in 1931, members being dismissed as "Saturday afternoon airmen".

Its part in the war might even have become overlooked were it not for these accompanying pictures taken by The Northern Echo's chief photographer, Douglas Jefferson, in September 1941 and pooled to North-East newspapers.

They illustrated reports on the work of 608 (North Riding) Squadron of the AAF. So as not to give the game away to the enemy, the squadron was said to be based at "a north country aerodrome".

That aerodrome, we can now reveal, was Thornaby, Teesside.

The journalists were also not allowed to say with whom they had flown on their fact-finding mission. "One of the pilots being well-known in the North in peace time as an amateur jockey, " said the Northern Despatch.

That pilot, we can now reveal, was Wing Commander Peter Vaux, a farmer, racehorse trainer and member of the famous brewing family who lived near Barton on the northern edge of Yorkshire. His son, also called Peter, has kindly loaned these pictures.

When war broke out, the "Saturday afternoon airmen" became full-time fliers.

"They were trained and ready to go, and so were called up immediately, " said Peter, who also lives near Barton.

"Convoys of our ships were being attacked up and down the North Sea, and something had to be done."

The Thornaby squadron was allocated to coastal defence. In a hotch-potch of aircraft - notably Avro Ansons, which were nicknamed "flying greenhouses" because they contained so much glass - they patrolled the North-East coast.

They guarded British shipping below, detected German U-boats and watched all enemy movements. 608's area stretched to occupied Norway - a coastline the pilots knew so well that they wrote a guidebook about it.

"They are the C.I.D. of the North Sea, " said the Northern Daily Mail. "Routine work they call it; working almost to a timetable in their trips across the sea and along the Norwegian coast, searching for the German convoys. . . estimating the tonnage of their vessels and then bringing up the heavier bombers to work their destruction."

At the time of the September 1941 articles, the squadron was proud that a ship in its care had never been damaged.

IN two years of war, 608 had flown 11,000 hours and covered 1,650,000 million miles - the equivalent of seven times from Earth to moon.

Seventy per cent of the squadron's aircrew and groundstaff were local people.

The rest were youngsters on Empire training schemes or Canadian boys whose parents had Yorkshire connections.

Although the auxiliaries did not seek out one-on-one confrontations with enemy planes, they often found themselves in life-threatening skirmishes.

There do not appear to be any reliable casualty figures, but at Thornaby during the war there were 90 funerals.

Twenty-six were of Germans, and one of an Austrian, airmen who had crashed on Teesside. Then there were ceremonies for Commonwealth citizens: nine Canadians, six New Zealanders, three Australians, two South Africans plus one American.

Which leaves 42 funerals - presumably of homegrown auxiliarymen.

Wing Commander Vaux, who trained as a flier when at Cambridge University, survived the war and returned to his farming and racehorse training. A large V for Victory that he painted on VE Day on the side of a house can still be seen overlooking the village shop in Barton.