CUMBRIA AT WAR

Capture the spirit of wartime Cumbria in this unique section of the archive. Using rarely seen material, find out what life was really like. It’s a lasting impression of wartime life against a backdrop of bombs and black-outs where both young and old discovered they had a very special fighting spirit. This section contains the WARTIME GALLERY and four rarely seen cine films from the war years.

The WARTIME GALLERY, which is possibly the largest collection of archive photographs that have ever been published, is in twelve parts. Each segment deals with a particular topic of wartime Cumbria.

WARTIME GALLERY INDEX

Part One: The First World War.

Part Two: Preparing for Conflict.

Part Three: Rations & Invasion Threat.

Part Four: Films, Factories and Food.

Part Five: Digging for Victory.

Part Six: The Windermere Flying Boat Factory.

Part Seven: Tragedy, Warship Building & A Captured U- Boat.

Part Eight: Death & Destruction in the Barrow Blitz.

Part Nine: Cumbria’s Airfields and Pilot Training.

Part Ten: A VIP Visit & a Toll of Tragic Accidents.

Part Eleven: Cumbria’s Varied Airfields.

Part Twelve: Prisoners of War & V.E. Day.

FILMS

Our four films help to bring alive the atmosphere of the war years. They are extremely rare and deal with arming a spitfire, training for D-Day, The Home Guard and prisoner of war camps. We hope you find them interesting. Please click on the roll-down menu on the top bar under Cumbria At War to locate each film.