Synopses & Reviews
From 1909 onwards, Lancashire, in the northwest of England, saw some of the earliest pioneering fights in the UK and the industrial nature of the region made it an ideal area for the manufacture of aircraft and war materials for WWI. During WWII, the county contained a fighter base, two navy airfields, several training bases, factory airfields, plus the two largest air bases in the UK, Burtonwood and Warton. These were USAAF Base Air Depots providing aircraft, equipment and support for the 8th, 9th, 12th and 15th US Air Forces in Europe. Liverpool Docks facilitated the import of over 70,000 US aircraft and gliders during the war period, and over 2 million US troops disembarked there. Burtonwood had such a mammoth manufacturing capacity that it was known as 'Lancashire's Detroit'. The fighters at Woodvale protected the region against enemy aircraft and, particularly, the daily reconnaissance flights down the Irish Sea by the Luftwaffe. The Navy airfields took aircraft from carriers that entered Liverpool docks, trained new squadrons and provided fleet requirements and convoy protection for both military and civilian shipping. The book contains full details of all 13 airfields, plus information on invasion defence, coastal defences and artillery ranges, anti-aircraft defences, impact on local civilians, decoy sites, prisoner of war camps, military training units and much more. Located away from the operational bases in the east of England, Lancashire was able to provide comparatively unbroken supply and maintenance facilities to all Allied forces -- it never slept.