pzu,
Thanks for the information ! But from the title I assume that it treats of the wartime days when Thornaby was mainly engaged in anti-submarine work over the North Sea with Ansons and Hudsons, and this was long before my time.
I don't think any of the post-war auxiliaries I knew stemmed from that source (as they were all s/e pilots)' and the pre-war fighter 608 auxiliaries seem to have started the war with Spitfires, Ansons and Hudsons. This cutting (from "Thornaby Aerodrome Wartime Memories" (ISBN 0 9517229 1 3) may be of interest:
"But the real tasks of 608 Sqdn were to locate surface mines which were subsequently destroyed by minesweepers of the Royal Navy, the sighting of U-boats or ships suspected of aiding the enemy, and searching for small boats carrying refugees and escapees in addition to guarding North Sea convoys. This searching of vast expanses of sea, often without reward, was nicknamed the 'kipper patrol'."
Danny.