WW2 Decoy sites

An acquaintance spent one afternoon two years ago talking with an old New Zealand gentleman in an old folks' home, who drove a bulldozer during the war for Ben Wyatt (who laterly ran a very large earthmoving business from the T2 hangar at Snetterton).

It seems Ben had acquired two D8? dozers - not much gear around of this size back then - and was approached by a Man from the Ministry to carry out special work for them. No official documents changed hands other than the occasional set of plans being delivered. It was all a bit hush-hush.

So they got on with it, moving swiftly from job to job (I guess in Norfolk and Suffolk, maybe further afield too?), and soon realised they were creating groundworks for runways. The work was important enough for them to be given priority status, which came in handy when a new flywheel for their welder's GARDNER LW engine had to be sourced from Manchester.

During this time they were always working on their own and never saw any other construction teams on the sites. After a while and out of curiosity they went back to a couple of their earlier jobs expecting to see a swath of concrete, but all they found were a few people weeding the bare earthworks!

Then the penny dropped - they had been creating decoy runways!

I was investigating a QL site in Cornwall today with the landowner, when I uncovered a number of coils of wire. At first I thought I'd found some old barbed wire, but this had no barbs and seemed too thick and heavy. Is it possible this is the remains of some of the wiring used for a QL site that perhaps got left behind when the site was dismantled? I'd appreciate the collective wisdom of forum members.

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A lot of electrical cable was used to connect from the Control Shelter to the decoy fire baskets and lightning and provide power from the generator. To reduce voltage drop over the distances involved the cable was 'heavy' and suitable for external surface use. At least one and probably two qualified electricians were assigned to cover the shifts on a QL site and maintain serviceability.

there does'nt appear to be any remnants of insulation left and it does seem to be single core? how thick is it? looks like possibly old straining wire to me

It's about the thickness of a pencil, about 7mm. In photo 2 you can see on the piece nearest the ivy in the middle there seems to be some kind of covering that is splitting off or is that just the metal flaking?

the fact that it IS rusted, ie, not a copper core, make's me think its not electrical, when you say 7mm, is that the diameter of a section that hasn't corroded?

It's not clear from the photographs that the 'cable' is rusted. I assumed Phil knows the difference between rusted steel wire and electrical cable. Tough Rubber Sheathed cable was often used and in some case lead sheathed. Is the rusty looking split and flaking exterior deteriorated insulation or is it corrosion? If the latter, it aint cable!

in the first photo you can clearly see the oxidised dark core of the wire on a couple of the wrapping coils, ive dug up enough rusty old metal over the years to know what it looks like! im positive we are looking at some discarded fencing straining wire or similar, corrosion over the years will "blow" the cable from the inside effectively doubling the diameter in appearance.

I'm not criticising your comments but since Phil asked the question and has seen it first hand I thought that he would be able to confirm whether it was rust (or corrosion). I would expect cable to be fairly flexible whereas if it is heavy gauge wire it would be stiff.

PETERTHEEATER;80045 wrote:

I'm not criticising your comments but since Phil asked the question and has seen it first hand I thought that he would be able to confirm whether it was rust (or corrosion). I would expect cable to be fairly flexible whereas if it is heavy gauge wire it would be stiff.

Please think nothing of it Peter, I didn't think for a moment that you were being critical! my comment was a general observation and not aimed at anyone in particular, rest assured Peter I have nothing but respect for your undoubted knowledge in all matters Airfield.