Military Histories - Starfish Sites

Starfish Sites

The Starfish sites were meant to look like raging fires or explosions at the intended target and to draw the weight of the enemy attack onto the dummy location.
The effects produced were quite sophisticated with fires differing in type, intensity and duration according to the location being defended.
The site had means to control the fires remotely, usually from a building often (bravely) located in the centre of the dummy site.

The basic item was the 'burning basket'.

The construction of a basket showing layers of differing combustable materials. The whole basket was often drenched in oil.

Clusters of baskets were placed across the site.......the shaded baskets were fired electronically and the others caught alight by their proximity.

A group of burning baskets.

To simulate different fires a number of techniques were used.

The grid fire system - fuel from the header tank dribbled over steel tubing to produce a vivid yellow flame.

The crib fire used a basket full of wood shavings and coal. The flare cans would ignite the contents of the crib to produce a long lasting dull red glow.

The most dramatic effect was created by the boiling oil fire.

A steel tray was set over a container of coal and creosoted waste which was lit by electrical igniters.
At timed intervals, flushes of oil gushed over the increasingly hot tray.
After about 20mins the tray was hot enough to vapourise the oil and, at this point several gallons of cold water flushed into the tray.
The result was violent and explosive with flames reaching a height of 15 metres.

A section of a Starfish site showing tanks of fuel and water that would be flushed onto the red-hot tray.

A 'QL' site was often located within a Starfish site.

By the end of the war there were 237 Starfish sites protecting 81 cities, factories and other potential targets.

Unsurprisingly, there are very few images of these secret installations
The above shows a typical site spread out over several fields

Some Starfish installations were more successful than others.
There are reports of a spectacular success being achieved on April 17-18th 1941 when Portsmouth was raided and 90% of the bombs aimed at the city fell on the Starfish decoy site on Hayling Island.
However, other sites record receiving very few bombs and postwar investigations of a reportedly successful site found no bomb craters.
Overall it is considered that 5-10% of German bombs fell on decoy sites.