WW2 Decoy sites

REF;72851 wrote:

Hi guzzi, not sure where you mean, is there a picture or link in your reply above that I have missed?

Info on Wormegay here;
/community/showthread.php?5747-Wormegay-%28for-RAF-Marham%29 .

If you go to; www.heritage.norfolk.gov.uk/advancedsearch.aspx , type in search box, S.Pickenham Decoy Airfield, you can select a map of the site, (hopefully, I'm Mr Green with computors), to the right of the airfield site is fig. 41, to the right of THAT is small copse, in there is a war-time air-raid shelter. Why there? in the middle of no-where? I think there was some sort of Military Site on the other side of the road during the War.

Do you mean in this copse, just off the A1077?
www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.607815&lon=0....&z=18.1&r=0&src="msl"

REF;72871 wrote:

Do you mean in this copse, just off the A1077?
www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.607815&lon=0....&z=18.1&r=0&src="msl

"

No, drag map to your LEFT, so you are going RIGHT, along B1077, then head North, on West View road. Past houses on right, past road coming in from left, still on West View Rd. You will come to copse, on both sides of the road. Shelter is on RH side, in the trees.

DO you mean here;
www.flashearth.com/?lat=52.613921&lon=0....&z=18.2&r=0&src="msl"

That woodloand Copse is Site 11. North Pickenham Airfield, good to know something remains there! Something else to look at when we meet up!

Interesting to see this regarding decoy and starfish sites in Scotland:

www.secretscotland.org.uk/index.php/Secrets/AADecoysClyde

canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/167151/det...ecoy+control+bunker/

and also:
www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/60/a2100060.shtml

Here is a list of what each site designation are:

Types of dummy and decoy site

K Site. A day dumy airfield with cleared area, dummy aircraft, dumps, tracks etc.

K areas. The areas into which britain was divided for the purpose of local supervision of the display sites of various kinds in each area. The K area staff was part of 'Colonel Turner's department' a secret branch of the Air Staff

Q Site. A night display site with light simulating a true airfield, but with certain differences recognisable to a friendly pilot, but not likely to be detected by an enemy. Some static Q Sites were provided with fixed equipment, others were set up with mobile equipment.

MQ Mobile Q Set. Term used to describe mobile equipment for a non-static Q site. It is packed in boxes for easy transport.

ASQ Assault Q. This much lighter set of mobile equipment for a smaller Q site was packed in boxes and bags to enable it to be manhandled across country.

QL Site. The QL site was a night display with light simulating anything civil or military, other than an airfield, that might be visible in war at night. As with Q sites they could be static or mobile.

MQL Sites were mobile, transportable in boxes and covering a considerable area of ground when set up.

ASQL designated very light QL sets to represent a small military camp or convoy.

BQL Battery QL designated the battery-lit equipment representing upto 50 vehicles.

QF sites were those where combustible material was arranged to represent patches of fire over a medium area, with all groups fired electrically. These normally protected an individual isolated target such as a RAF station.

SF site. Special Fire or more commonly Starfish. The starfish were large sites covering a considerable area with various types of combustible material in groups. One or more Starfish would normally protect towns, particularly those vital to the war effort.

Regards,

HawkEye001

guzzi;72754 wrote:

Is this the shelter, further down the road towards S.Pickenham? On the left, in a small wood, still visible if you stop & look.

I think you've found NHER52690 , "A World War Two air raid shelter with a blast wall at one end and an escape shaft at the other was found in woodland between North and South Pickenham. This may be associated with the nearby airfield "

The 1946 aerial photographs of the decoy site ( NHER13567 ) show a pair of square structures right on the location given in the NHER description and map view.

If you're local, give me a shout. South Acre is also in pretty good condition, possibly better than Wormegay under all the overgrowth.

I visited a site at Flowbog Road, Mullaghglass outside West Belfast yesterday.
There is one shelter which has one entrance as well as a roof escape.
There are 2 rooms with one being for an electric generator.

How did these sites operate??

Did they lay out a line of lights like a runway for the germans to bomb??

Who manned them - Was it Home Guard, Regular Army, RAF ??

[IMG]/community/77018=4875-flowbog road for site 1.jpg[/img]
[IMG]/community/77018=4876-flowbog road for site 2.jpg[/img]
[IMG]/community/77018=4877-flowbog road for site 3.jpg[/img]
[IMG]/community/77018=4878-flowbog road for site 4.jpg[/img]
I have attached some pictures.

There were two types of decoy airfield, the K-site and the Q-site. Q-sites operated systems of static and mobile false lights at night to simulate an operating airfield, whilst K-sites operated during the day and moved dummy aircraft about the field. Locally (Norfolk) each parent site tended to have three decoy sites, usually two Q-sites and one Q/K-site that operated day and night. I believe that airfield decoys were manned by RAF personnel under the command of the parent station (the genuine airfield). The station commander made the decision as to when the decoy was to operate.

Other decoys simulating towns, industry, other installations were operated by other units. Fields of Deception by Dobinson is the standard reference on the subject.