Starfish site

Image:Black Down bunker.JPG in the Mendip Hills.]]

Starfish sites were large-scale night-time decoys created during the Blitz to simulate burning British cities. The aim was to divert German night bombers from their intended targets so they would drop their ordnance over the countryside. The sites were an extension of Colonel John Turner's decoy programme for airfields and factories (code named "Q" Sites, probably by analogy with Q-shipsDobinson (2000), p24). Following the bombing, and near destruction, of Coventry in November 1940, Turner was tasked with creating decoys for seven major cities.

Turner referred to the new sites as "Special Fire" or "SF". However, one early site (near Bristol) was given the name "Starfish", which subsequently became used for all of the decoys. The sites were constructed around {{convert|4|mi|km}} from their protection target, and at least {{convert|1|mi|km}} from any other settlement. They consisted of elaborate light arrays and fires, controlled from a nearby bunker and laid out to simulate a fire-bombed town. By the end of the war there were 237 decoys protecting 81 towns and cities around the country.

Archaeological excavation in 1992 of the original "Starfish", in the Mendip Hills, found no evidence of bomb craters. Later research confirmed that Starfish sites did attract the attention of enemy bombers; one estimate is that around 968 tons of ordnance were dropped on the decoys.

Background

At the outbreak of World War II, the British government feared a German bombing campaign against the UK mainland. Colonel John Turner, an engineer and retired Air Ministry officer, was tasked, in September 1939, with establishing a broad range of day and night decoys to mislead enemy bombers. His initial work was with dummy aircraft, airfields and factories; the decoys for which were dubbed 'K' Sites. Turner also implemented night decoys; dubbed 'Q' Sites, they consisted of lights mounted on poles to simulate an airfield.

Decoy Fire Sites

In response to the Germans' use of incendiary bombs, Turner added fires to the 'Q' Sites, dubbing them Q-Fire or QF, to add to their plausibility. Initially very crude, the fires were controlled from a nearby concrete pillbox. The theory was that after a first wave of bombers dropped on the real target, the decoy would light fires to simulate the previous raid for further waves to home in on.

Special Fires

Following the night bombing of Coventry, in early November 1940, the decoy programme was expanded to include towns and cities; the Air Ministry initially ordered sites to be set up for Bristol, Crewe, Derby, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough and Sheffield. The new "Special Fire" decoys were set up to simulate the bomb drops of German pathfinder squadrons. By 23 January 1941 the programme had been increased to 43 sites protecting 13 town and cities and by March operational sites numbered over 100. By the end of the war there were 237 Starfish sites protecting 81 locations.{{efn|The SF codes go from SF1 to SF81.}}

One of the first decoy sites was constructed on Black Down on the Mendip Hills;{{efn|Dobinson reports that Starfish sites in the main programme had an identification code such as SF1(b). With SF1 referring to Bristol the first town/city to be protected and (a) to (f) being its Starfish sites. The Black Down site appears to SF1(b).}} it was code-named "Starfish", derived from Turner's original SF code, and built to protect the nearby city of Bristol. The Starfish name was eventually adopted to describe all of the SF decoy sites. The Mendip Hills site used fires of creosote and water to simulate incendiary bombs exploding. In addition, glow boxes were used to simulate the streets and railways of Bristol; the light bulbs were powered by electrical generators turned by Coventry Climax petrol engines contained in two bunkers.{{cite news|url=http://www.mendiptimes.co.uk/|title=Starfish and subterfuge|last=Davies|first=Les|date=March 2009|work=Mendip Times|access-date=24 February 2009}} Another of Bristol's sites was located in the parish of Yatton, North Somerset.{{cite news|url= https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/real-life/decoy-cities-built-spare-bristol-7368305 |title=The decoy cities built to spare Bristol from Luftwaffe bombs|date=24 July 2022|newspaper=Bristol Live|access-date=17 December 2022}}

Glasgow was protected by various Starfish sites located on its surrounding hillsides. A decoy site existed at Long Wood at grid reference {{gbmaprim|NS540524|NS 540 524}} outside Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire.{{efn|The site is SF13(e).}} Clusters of impressions where basket fires once stood, bounded by fire-break trenches, covered much of the area seen in Second World War photographs, and a prominent structure near the site may have been the decoy control bunker. Anti-aircraft gun emplacements have been noted at the site.{{cite web | title=Long Wood, Starfish Decoy Site| work=RCAHMS| url=http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/229135/details/long+wood+starfish+decoy+site/ | access-date=2009-11-16}} Another site known as Craigmaddie lies on the Campsie Fells at Blairskaith Muir, {{gbmaprim|NS595762|NS595 762}}. It was a co-located Starfish and QF/QL site.{{cite web |title=Blairskaith Muir, Civil Starfish Decoy site | work=RCAHMS |url=http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/232040/details/blairskaith+muir+civil+starfish+decoy | access-date=12 June 2012}}{{efn|The site is SF13(c) and C15(g).}} Carrington Moss, near Manchester, was another Starfish site.

Image:Liddington Starfish.jpg control bunker on Liddington Hill]]

As of 2000, there is a relatively intact control bunker for a co-located Starfish and Quick Light (QL) site at Liddington Hill overlooking Swindon.{{efn|The site is SF41(a) and C71(a).}}

Recent research in North Staffordshire also found the existence of 3 relict QL sites in varying states of preservation that was published in the [https://doi.org/10.1080/15740773.2025.2464568 Journal of Conflict Archaeology] in 2025.

Effectiveness

A 1992 archaeological survey of the Mendip Hills did not identify surviving bomb craters on the Black Down site (the original "Starfish"), despite claims of their existence. In his 2000 book, Fields of Deception: Britain's Bombing Decoys of World War II, historian Colin Dobinson collated Turner's conservative estimates as to the success of decoy sites; suggesting that Starfish decoys diverted 968 tons of German bombardment.{{efn|Dobinson worked on English Heritage's Monuments Protection Programme. The copyright of Fields of Deception: Britain's Bombing Decoys of World War II is vested jointly in Dobinson and English Heritage.}}

Germany

The Germans also built large-scale night-time decoys such as the Krupp decoy site ({{langx|de|Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage}}) for the Krupp steel works in Essen.

Notes

References

{{reflist|30em|refs=

Crowdy (2008), pp. 58-60

Crowdy (2008), p. 61

Price (2004), p. 32

Dobinson (2000), Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Sites.

Dobinson (2000), Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Sites, Table 1.4: Civil Starfish (SF Series).

Dobinson (2000), Appendix 1: Gazetteer of Sites, Table 1.7: Civil QL and QF (C Series).

Dobinson (2000), Chapter 4; Starfish: November 1940 - June 1941.

Dobinson (2000), pp. 85 & 89.

Dobinson (2000), p. 90.

Dobinson (2000), pp. 209-213 & 290-298.

Brown (1999)

Ellis (1992), p. 47

Arquilla (2007), p. 143

Smith (2003), p. 14

}}

=Bibliography=

{{cite book|author=Arquilla, John|author2=Borer, Douglas A. |title=Information Strategy and Warfare: A Guide to Theory and Practice|url=https://archive.org/details/informationstrat00arqu|url-access=limited|publisher=Routledge|date=9 August 2007|pages=[https://archive.org/details/informationstrat00arqu/page/n264 248]|isbn=978-0415771245}}
{{cite book|author=Brown, Donald|title=Somerset v. Hitler: Secret Operations in the Mendips, 1939-45|publisher=Countryside Books|year=1999|isbn=978-1-85306-590-3}}
{{cite book|author=Crowdy, Terry|title=Deceiving Hitler: double cross and deception in World War II|publisher=Osprey Publishing |date=23 September 2008 |pages=352 pages|isbn=978-1-84603-135-9}}
{{cite book |author=Dobinson, Colin |title=Fields of Deception: Britain's Bombing Decoys of World War II |location=London |publisher=Methuen Publishing |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-413-74570-5}}
{{cite web|author=Ellis, Peter|title=Mendip Hills An Archaeological Survey of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty|work=Somerset County Council Archeological Projects|url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/HES_MendipAONB.pdf|access-date=16 January 2011|date=January 1992}}
{{cite book|author=Price, Alfred|author2=Pavlović, Darko|title=Britain's Air Defences 1939-45|url=https://archive.org/details/britainsairdefen00pric|url-access=limited|publisher=Osprey Publishing|date=25 March 2004|pages=[https://archive.org/details/britainsairdefen00pric/page/n64 64]|isbn=1841767107}}
{{cite book|author=Smith, Peter J. C.|title= Luftwaffe Over Manchester: The Blitz Years 1940-1944|publisher=Neil Richardson|year=2003|isbn=1-85216-151-5}}

External links

[http://www.pastscape.org.uk/News.aspx?id=NewsItem14#bd Read about bombing decoys]
[http://www.aviationmuseum.net/decoys.htm Decoy Sites – Wartime Deception in Norfolk and Suffolk by Huby Fairhead]
[http://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/uep/content_page.asp?content_page_id=224&content_parents=48,95,213 Night-Time Fire-Based Decoys by Fred Nash]
[http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=1467945 Read about the Bristol Civil Bombing Site C1H]
[http://www.bute-at-war.org/butewar.shtml Bute at War] The Isle of Bute had a decoy ('dummy') village located at the north end of the Island to confuse enemy bombers, and hopefully to draw them away from Greenock or Clydebank.
{{YouTube|id=FdTYpMRb06E |title=Auchenreoch Muir RAF 'Starfish' Decoy Control Bunker}}
{{YouTube|id=cyFp4QjD8Mc |title=Gleniffer Braes Starfish Decoy Site Control Bunker, Paisley}}
[http://nachtscheinanlage.de/ Interessengemeinschaft museale Erschließung Baudenkmal Leitstand Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage: Geschichte der Kruppschen Nachtscheinanlage in Velbert] (German) Private Museum of Krupp-Works Decoy Site in Velbert (near Essen)

Category:Military deception during World War II

Category:Battle of Britain

Category:United Kingdom home front during World War II