The entire county of Shropshire and territory across the border into Wales, was turned into a huge military training ground in the 20th centuries, and during the war, 1939-45, the 19 airfields were used to train pilots for combat. Brooks weaves memoirs, official records, amateur photographs, and other sources into narrative histories for each airfield. An introductory chapter explains such common features as hangers, watch office and control tower, decoys and camouflage, and airfield defenses. Another chapter looks at civilians, many evacuated to Shropshire from London to escape the bombing there. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Company. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)