York's Decoy Sites

The location of York's two decoy sites.

With York being a strategic railway asset, a decoy site was operational in September 1941 near Upper Poppleton to simulate the nearby LNER marshalling yards.

This was a QL site which used lighting effects to simulate urban/industrial targets.

(Click for details of how this was achieved....opens in a new window)

Lights, similar to those actually used in a marshalling yard were laid out in rows but incongruously in open fields.

Other techniques simulated the 'careless exposure' of the glow from a locomotive's firebox.

Virtually no images can be found of a QL site but this image shows lights (coloured orange & yellow) suspended above a rectangle of sand.
From altitude, this gave a glow similar to a blast furnace. A smaller version would simulate the glowing firebox of a locomotive.

There is no evidence that this site attracted any bombs from their true target.

Following the raid in April 1942, a temporary Starfish site was built 5km south of the city on an area known today as the Heslington Tillmire.

Temporary sites used less sophisticated methods of simulating fires and explosions.

The site became operational on the 15th May 1942 and consisted of 40 large baskets of highly inflammable material that could be electronically ignited from a remote shelter. The baskets were divided into smaller groups and spaced out over the whole site. Each group was surrounded by a ditch to prevent the fire from spreading too far.

The Starfish decoy site would be ignited shortly after the first bombs dropped on a target with the aim of attracting subsequent bombs .

Burning baskets at an unknown Starfish site

There is no record of the site ever having been lit and the last direct mention of the site was in December 1942.

On the 21st May 1942 records show that a second Starfish site including a QL site was being considered for York but this was never constructed.....the two types were frequently integrated into one site.

Click for more information about the Upper Poppleton QL site and the Fulford Starfish site (links open in a new window).

The Upper Poppleton QL site was constructed in this field.

The QL site was in open fields to the west of the village

The former Starfish site showing the Minster and two of the seven ditches which surrounded the fires.

The Starfish site is now the Tillmire SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest)