No. 608 Squadron — North Riding

No. 608 (North Riding) Squadron was formed on 17 March 1930 at RAF Thornaby-on-Tees as an Auxiliary Air Force day bomber unit with strong ties to the North Riding of Yorkshire. On the eve of the Second World War, in March 1939, it transferred to Coastal Command and re-equipped with Avro Ansons to fly anti-submarine and convoy-escort patrols over the North Sea; it holds the distinction of being the only RAF squadron to operate the troubled Blackburn Botha torpedo bomber in service, before reverting to Ansons and later Bristol Blenheims and Lockheed Hudsons. Flying from bases in Scotland, Gibraltar, North Africa, Sicily, and finally Italy, the squadron accumulated a wide operational footprint before disbanding at Pomigliano on 31 July 1944. It was immediately reformed the following day, 1 August 1944, at RAF Downham Market as a de Havilland Mosquito unit within No. 8 (Pathfinder) Group’s Light Night Striking Force, now under Bomber Command. In this second wartime incarnation the squadron conducted fast, high-altitude night attacks against targets deep inside Germany. On 2 May 1945 sixteen of its Mosquitoes struck Kiel naval port in what proved to be the last bombing raid carried out by RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War. The squadron finally disbanded at Downham Market on 28 August 1945, though it was later reformed as part of the post-war Royal Auxiliary Air Force before permanent disbandment in 1957.