Starfish Site - Special Fires

Special Fires

Following the night bombing of Coventry, in early November 1940, the decoy programme was expanded to include towns and cities; the Air Ministry initially ordered sites to be set up for Bristol, Crewe, Derby, London, Manchester, Middlesbrough and Sheffield. The new "Special Fire" decoys were set up to simulate the bomb drops of German pathfinder squadrons. By 23 January 1941 the programme had been increased to 43 sites protecting 13 town and cities and by March operational sites numbered over 100. By the end of the war there were 237 Starfish sites protecting 81 locations.

One of the first decoy sites was constructed on Black Down on the Mendip Hills; it was codenamed "Starfish", derived from Turner's original SF code, and built to protect the nearby city of Bristol. The Starfish name was eventually adopted to describe all of the SF decoy sites.

The sites were located around 4 miles from the town they protected and at least 1 mile from any other settlement. Various types of fire were used - from quick burning felt to creosote - to simulate a recently-bombed town. Each site was controlled locally from a concrete pillbox; the fires were lit as soon as the target town came under bombing attack. The aim was to extinguish fires in the town as fast as possible, leaving the decoy site to distract bombers.