Strategic Starfish Site -- Whixall Moss

Описание: In 1939 Colonel John Turner, stationed at the Sound City Film studios which became better known as Shepperton, was put in charge of constructing an elaborate network of dummy airfields and hundreds of decoy sites.
The idea was the decoys, which became known as "starfish", were placed near to areas at risk of being bombed by the Luftwaffe.
Whixall Moss, north Shropshire, is one of 237 starfish established at the height of the war, and is being reconstructed as part of a nature trail for visitors to learn about decoys.
Jim Stabler, from the county council and who has been in charge of recreating the 65 fire boxes using replica baskets, said starfish were "top secret" until about the 1960s.
"The Germans used pathfinders to drop incendiary flares on sites to be targeted by the bomber and those flares were extinguished as soon as possible after they'd been dropped," he said.
Jim Stabler said he hopes Whixall Moss will attract tourists to learn about its secret past as a decoy
"The starfish fires were lit via wires by men stationed nearby to make it appear as if the area was already under attack.
"It was an important strategy to divert the Germans and Whixall was of a chain of three that included Llandegla in Wrexham and Llanasa in Flintshire designed to protect Manchester, Merseyside and Crewe."
He added about 700 bombing missions attacked starfish sites across Great Britain during World War 2.

Reproduced by kind permission of the BBC

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