A rather gloomy morning and a fall back on a recycled subject. I last posted about this Starfish Decoy Command Bunker almost three years ago to the day. It looked a nice day then. Adjacent to the Hutton to Kildale track along Percy Rigg, this WW2 relic was one of 237 similar decoys around the country protecting industrial towns and cities from German bombing. Located well away from habitation, the bunker housed a platoon of soldiers whose task was to light fires on the moor to trick the German aircrew into thinking it was a random fire in nearby Middlesbrough and releasing their bombs over the empty heather moorland. I have always thought that the actual decoy site was immediately below the bunker in a network of trenches but it has been pointed out that it was about 640 metres away south-east along the Percy Rigg track. I guess that makes more sense. The MOD wouldn’t have wanted bombs being dropped too close to the bunker.
Starfish Decoy Command Bunker
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5 responses to “Starfish Decoy Command Bunker”
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[…] ‘JP’ are undoubtedly the guys that cast it. Alternatively, there could be some connection to the bombing decoy control bunker on Great Ayton Moor across Codhill Slack and the date is purely […]
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[…] operated under the codename ‘Starfish‘. I’ve written about this one before, see here and here. It is estimated that over 900 tons of ordnance were dropped on the decoys nationwide but […]
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Hi, I’ve just had a chat with some NYM volunteer rangers. They where telling me that over on the top of Chimney Bank, Rosedale there was a decoy site – a grid of lights laid out across the moors & operated from a ” secret” room in Newlands Farm.
Apparently, there is a bomb crater in one the farm fields.
Do you have any further information on this?
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Mark, that’s a new one on me. There’s a bomb crater on Spaunton Moor about SE 7237 9428, and an supposed WW2 earthwork at SE 7225 9444.
But I’ll keep my interest is piqued.
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[…] view down from above the WW2 Starfish Decoy Command Bunker on Hutton Moor down Codhill Slack, or Rivelingdale to use its medieval name1Guisborough Before […]
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