Avro Anson, part Fourteen, British users part three

It was on 6th March 1936 when the Anson entered service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) being the No.48 Squadron the first unit to be equipped with the type. When the type entered service it represented a new level of capability for the service as it could perform not just general reconnaissance roles, as intended but it was also an excellent general-purpose aircraft. When the World War II was waged, there were 824 Ansons in service with the RAF in a total of 26 squadrons. Ten of them assigned to the Coastal Command and the remaining 16 assigned to the Bomber Command.
By 1939 all the squadrons assigned to the Bomber Command that were equipped with the Anson served as operational trainers to prepare bomber crew members for frontline service. Twelve of the squadrons were in the No.6 (Operational Training) Group. Newly trained crews, having previously received individual flying and technical training courses, were first trained as bomber crews in Ansons before they could advance further to the various frontline aircraft types, which, in many occasions, were also in the same squadrons with the Ansons. After training in the frontline aircraft type, crews advanced to the frontline bomber squadrons with those aircraft types (Fairey Battle, Handley Page Hampden, Bristol Blenheim, Vickers Wellington and/or the Armstrong Whitworth Weatley). At the earliest part of the war, the Anson was already being replaced by the American-built Lockheed Hudson in the Coastal Command, one squadron being fully equipped with Hudsons and other one being just partially equipped with both Ansons and Hudsons.
Limited numbers of Ansons continued to serve in operational roles such as coastal patrol and air/sea rescue. Early in the war an Anson scored a probable hit on a German U-boat, though it's unconfirmed. In June 1940 a flight of three Ansons was engaged by nine German Bf.109. Amazingly, before the fight ended, without any Anson lost, they managed to shot down two German machines and damage a third one.
The aircraft's real role, however, was to train pilots for flying multi-engined bombers, such as the Avro Lancaster, the Handley Page Halifax or the Short Stirling. The Anson was also employed to train other crew members of a bomber's crew, like navigators, wireless operators, bomb aimers and air gunners.
During the World War II the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) operated the Anson as their standard taxi aircraft, using the type to ferry pilots to and from aircraft collection points. Remarkably, there was no fatal mechanical failure of an Anson serving with the ATA and was typically very well considered.
After the War, the type was manufactured at Avro's factory in Woodford, Greater Manchester until March 1952 as the type, albeit was still being used by the RAF in the training, light transport and station communications aircraft roles until 28th June 1968. However, those postwar manufactured models were mostly C.19 and T.Mk.20/21 which were light cargo and trainer variants.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Anson
2. https://www.valka.cz/Avro-Anson-t54872 (translated when needed)
3. Hall Park Books - Warpaint 53 - Avro Anson