New to me…rather interesting..
By: Cherry Ripe - 4th March 2013 at 14:31
IIRC they also flew him over their replicated setup, and got a very good answer when they asked him how many Luftwaffe aircrew bombed decoys – “None! No-one would dare go back and tell Goering they’d bombed a decoy!”
Haha! Though I believe the level of nocturnal navigation was such that few would have even realised it was a decoy.
Not dissing the Luftwaffe, it was just the only practical practice of the time to follow water features and lights to target and sometimes they were spectacularly incorrect.
By: adrian_gray - 4th March 2013 at 12:47
Dunno about Coast, but I recall a series called, I think, Time Fliers, on archaeological sites from the air which showed the Hull decoys – very cleverly done to “replicate” a poorly blacked out dock area. They had an interview with Hajo Herman*, IIRC they also flew him over their replicated setup, and got a very good answer when they asked him how many Luftwaffe aircrew bombed decoys – “None! No-one would dare go back and tell Goering they’d bombed a decoy!”
Adrian
*almost certainly misspelt.
ETA – “Time Flyers”, with the spectacularly enthusiastic Mark Horton – broadcast 2003:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/90/a4061990.shtml
By: paul178 - 3rd March 2013 at 11:18
From UBEX some starfish sites
http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Category/ClydeAADefences
By: Mike JGH - 3rd March 2013 at 08:14
The aviation museum at Flixton/Bungay has displays on decoy sites. One of the museum members, Huby Fairhead has done a lot of research on Starfish and other decoys.
Mike
By: Cherry Ripe - 2nd March 2013 at 20:34
Fields of Deception will reveal all if you want to dig deeper. All the known Starfish ( and the other decoys too ) sites are located and listed.
I read it a few years ago and recall that Starfish was an idea born in a hurry one day when word came through that there was to be a big raid on a city. The CO was at home for the weekend and so the lads in the office whipped-up an idea involving pits of flaming oil…
By: nibb100 - 2nd March 2013 at 16:37
there was a episode of Coast that showed how they did this to Hull docks, seems that it worked very well
By: WZ862 - 2nd March 2013 at 16:27
More detail on Starfish sites
Laurie Brettingham’s book “Royal Air Force Beam Benders No 80 (Signals) Wing 1940-1945” Midland Publishing 1999 Chapters 11 and 12 has some wonderful detail on this almost unknown subject. 80 Wing controlled the decoy effort. The book chapters are a good summary and most helpfully well referenced with further reading.
WZ862
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March 1, 2013 at 11:08 am