As the storm clouds of war were gathering over Europe in 1938, construction work began on two of Cumbria's biggest aircraft maintenance units - at Kirkbride and Silloth. Throughout the war these two airfields would handle between them literally thousands of aircraft, preparing new ones for the front-line and modifying and repairing others. Cumbria and the Isle of Man had early on been marked down as suitable places to build flying schools because of their relatively uncluttered skies and generally good weather. The Isle of Man also had an abundance of both bombing and air-to-air ranges which...