Prob not a lot of interest to most, but I am fascinated with these. I have been reading and researching about them for quite a few years now. Here are two examples, one of a starfish and one of a KQ decoy site.
During wars over history decoys have been used to good effect to fool the enemy. This was never so proficient as during the second world war.
A plan was made to build dummy airfields to distract the enemy from bombing the real airfields. Colonel John Turner was appointed with the task of overseeing this mission. He has started off in the corps of royal engineers, then in the RAF as an engineer and later director of works and buildings at the London air ministry. It turned out to be a mission of an enormous scale. The sites were split into four different areas around the country. K1 would cover Scotland, Northumberland and Durham. K2 would cover Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. K3 would cover East Anglia and any counties west of that and K4 would cover south eastern London. Each area had a central HQ they would report too. Originally, and this is were decoys get confusing, they were sorted by letters. The original ones were K sites, this would replicate an airfield with dummy wooden planes, old scrap lorries and cars and fake buildings. Old tiger moth training planes were often used and fake fun pits were dug and covered in canvas. The Q sites would be night time decoys. This would involve lights for replicating landing lights, flare lights and buildings. Later on many sites they became KQ sites meaning they would operate day and night. It worked with great efficiency and took away a lot off bombing from the real ones.
An idea was then to replicate industrial areas and ports to deter the enemy from these. So a plan was made and they came up with QL and QF sites. The QL sites replicated lighting to imitate anything from cars to railway stations to factories. The QF sites replicated fires to show a bombed areas. The bombs would drop and the fires would start to replicate a target being hit. After the raids on Coventry the special fire sites were created, these became known as starfish (SF) sites. These were located near major cities and towns. Several were constructed around a town with a building made of wood and Hessian in the sides in a steel frame. These would be covered in parafin and petrol or creosote. It was clad in asbestos to be able to reuse. The sites also used lots of other tricks as well.
The Q, SF and K sites were placed a mile to eight miles away from the intended targets.
At its peak there was 630 decoy sites around the UK four hundred were decoy towns and the rest airfield sites. Figures later came out saying the airfields decoys had been bombed 443 times and the decoy towns/cities 100 times with an estimate of 2,500 lives were saved and a lot of infrastructure. The crews manning these sites were obviously luring the enemy to them, hence putting there life's at risk. But surprisingly only four people were killed.
These sites are long gone and returned to agriculture. But dotted about is the remains of bunkers. These were small and consisted of two rooms.
First up is the SF decoys site for Norwich, well one of them. This was located near the village of Rockland St Mary. The bunker is now hidden in brambles on the edge of a farmer's field. This decoy detracted the enemy from Norwich train station, also Boulton and Paul's was near the station as well. They would use wicker baskets and wicks which were covered in wire netting and filled with reeds and wood off cuts covered in creosote. They would then be filled with oil filled rags, these were ignited by an electrical detonator to ignite boiler troughs. These were large tanks on scaffolding. There would be two of them, one filled with oil and one filled with water. The baskets in troughs would be ignited and once burning the water and oil would run through a tank with a cistern system. This would give an explosion up to thirty feet giving an impression of people putting out fires.
Archive pic of a starfish site.
Let it burn.
So this place is so overgrown.
I knew I should have brought my gripes. Instead it was a careful tread down.
The entry walkway. These bunkers were constructed off concrete roofs and brick walls, and mounded up with soil.
The original doors still sit here.
Inside the command room looking to the generator room.
The command room has an emergency hatch, sadly the ladder is long gone
The generator room. There was two duct holes either side which were fifteen inch diameter holes, one for the air intake and another for the exhaust.
The plinths sit in situ still.
Behind each plinth is these which I presume would be the fuel intake pipe adaptors for the generators.
The KQ site is situated near the village of Fulmondeson. This decoy was used to deter from RAF West Raynham.
As you can see this has a platform. On here would sit a flash light called a scarecrow this was used to simulate aircraft taking off
The blast wall.
Looking in the main entrance. This was different to the SF decoy bunker. These would have a nissen hut design at the front and cast concrete room at the rear for the generators.
Looking into the command room. They would have basics in here like a stove and table.
An alleyway seperates the two rooms with another entry.
The pre cast generator room.
Again we have the ducting holes.
These airfield dummy sites were so successful that they had to put red lights out to warn our own pilots. As several attempts to land at these false airfields had happened a few times.
The decoy operation across the UK was one of the most secretive things of the war. It was so secretive that there real use was not known for many years after.
During wars over history decoys have been used to good effect to fool the enemy. This was never so proficient as during the second world war.
A plan was made to build dummy airfields to distract the enemy from bombing the real airfields. Colonel John Turner was appointed with the task of overseeing this mission. He has started off in the corps of royal engineers, then in the RAF as an engineer and later director of works and buildings at the London air ministry. It turned out to be a mission of an enormous scale. The sites were split into four different areas around the country. K1 would cover Scotland, Northumberland and Durham. K2 would cover Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. K3 would cover East Anglia and any counties west of that and K4 would cover south eastern London. Each area had a central HQ they would report too. Originally, and this is were decoys get confusing, they were sorted by letters. The original ones were K sites, this would replicate an airfield with dummy wooden planes, old scrap lorries and cars and fake buildings. Old tiger moth training planes were often used and fake fun pits were dug and covered in canvas. The Q sites would be night time decoys. This would involve lights for replicating landing lights, flare lights and buildings. Later on many sites they became KQ sites meaning they would operate day and night. It worked with great efficiency and took away a lot off bombing from the real ones.
An idea was then to replicate industrial areas and ports to deter the enemy from these. So a plan was made and they came up with QL and QF sites. The QL sites replicated lighting to imitate anything from cars to railway stations to factories. The QF sites replicated fires to show a bombed areas. The bombs would drop and the fires would start to replicate a target being hit. After the raids on Coventry the special fire sites were created, these became known as starfish (SF) sites. These were located near major cities and towns. Several were constructed around a town with a building made of wood and Hessian in the sides in a steel frame. These would be covered in parafin and petrol or creosote. It was clad in asbestos to be able to reuse. The sites also used lots of other tricks as well.
The Q, SF and K sites were placed a mile to eight miles away from the intended targets.
At its peak there was 630 decoy sites around the UK four hundred were decoy towns and the rest airfield sites. Figures later came out saying the airfields decoys had been bombed 443 times and the decoy towns/cities 100 times with an estimate of 2,500 lives were saved and a lot of infrastructure. The crews manning these sites were obviously luring the enemy to them, hence putting there life's at risk. But surprisingly only four people were killed.
These sites are long gone and returned to agriculture. But dotted about is the remains of bunkers. These were small and consisted of two rooms.
First up is the SF decoys site for Norwich, well one of them. This was located near the village of Rockland St Mary. The bunker is now hidden in brambles on the edge of a farmer's field. This decoy detracted the enemy from Norwich train station, also Boulton and Paul's was near the station as well. They would use wicker baskets and wicks which were covered in wire netting and filled with reeds and wood off cuts covered in creosote. They would then be filled with oil filled rags, these were ignited by an electrical detonator to ignite boiler troughs. These were large tanks on scaffolding. There would be two of them, one filled with oil and one filled with water. The baskets in troughs would be ignited and once burning the water and oil would run through a tank with a cistern system. This would give an explosion up to thirty feet giving an impression of people putting out fires.
Archive pic of a starfish site.
Let it burn.
So this place is so overgrown.
I knew I should have brought my gripes. Instead it was a careful tread down.
The entry walkway. These bunkers were constructed off concrete roofs and brick walls, and mounded up with soil.
The original doors still sit here.
Inside the command room looking to the generator room.
The command room has an emergency hatch, sadly the ladder is long gone
The generator room. There was two duct holes either side which were fifteen inch diameter holes, one for the air intake and another for the exhaust.
The plinths sit in situ still.
Behind each plinth is these which I presume would be the fuel intake pipe adaptors for the generators.
The KQ site is situated near the village of Fulmondeson. This decoy was used to deter from RAF West Raynham.
As you can see this has a platform. On here would sit a flash light called a scarecrow this was used to simulate aircraft taking off
The blast wall.
Looking in the main entrance. This was different to the SF decoy bunker. These would have a nissen hut design at the front and cast concrete room at the rear for the generators.
Looking into the command room. They would have basics in here like a stove and table.
An alleyway seperates the two rooms with another entry.
The pre cast generator room.
Again we have the ducting holes.
These airfield dummy sites were so successful that they had to put red lights out to warn our own pilots. As several attempts to land at these false airfields had happened a few times.
The decoy operation across the UK was one of the most secretive things of the war. It was so secretive that there real use was not known for many years after.
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