Op Starfish….decoy cities

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.

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

From UBEX some starfish sites

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/military-sites/78382-starfish-decoy-control-bunker-cragg-vale-october-2012-a.html

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/underground-sites/73925-langcraigs-auchenreoch-starfish-decoy-bunker-dumbarton-aug-2012-a.html

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/underground-sites/70036-jaw-reservior-starfish-bunker-april-2012-a.html

http://www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Category/ClydeAADefences

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

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…

there was a episode of Coast that showed how they did this to Hull docks, seems that it worked very well

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