Boeing Factory

The Boeing airplane factory in Seattle created a fake neighborhood. Looking back through photographs, woman were being shown walking on a suburban landscape which was made from chicken wire and planks and was positioned over the top of the roof of a factory. But underneath this fake neighborhood, B-17’s were being built for the war effect.

Ghost Army

In the U.S. the 23^rd Headquarters Special Troops were being charged with intimidating the German army by convincing them that the Allies had more troops and equipment than they actually had. They created what they called a ‘ghost army’, which consisted of transported vehicles, troop carriers, tanks and munitions which were all made of inflatable balloons complete with sound effects.

Operation Starfish

I read an article in the daily mail about an operation that took place during WW2 called Operation Starfish. This operation was focused o designed WW2 sites, to look like burning cities and this saved around about 2,500 lives and this diverted 730 air raids.

• Operation Starfish decoyed towns in Britain, which helped to dupe Nazi aircraft during the Blitz.
• They were also built to lure the enemy bombers away from populated areas.
• Tanks would contain diesel and paraffin and these would have been placed on top of 20ft towers.
• Diesel would be released onto either coke/coal before the water was released on top
• This caused a staggering virtual explosion of fire and steam. This would make the sites look like a burning town.

The story behind the name ‘Starfish’ towns, goes back to he initials that stood for ‘Special Fire’ sites, which were designed to avoid any kind of disaster that would destroy Coventry during the Blitz. They called these place dummy towns, and these were probably sited miles away from the community and populated cities that were most likely to come under attack. If the German bombers attacked a real target or if they lit their lights up, they either would extinguish the flames or light the decoy fires. This would convince the German bombers that this was the target and that they had successfully destroyed the decoy site once bombed.

Dummy sites were a well-established and tactical plan, as they would help preserve transport hubs and cities in Britain. Around about 230 dummy airfields were placed in the UK and about 400 dummy urban and industrial sites were also being produced in the UK. By the end of WW2 there were 237 Starfish sites, which were protecting 81 cities, factories and other potential targets. Over the years, official figures have revealed that 730 bombing raids were being diverted to these dummy targets. Middlesbrough, Bristol, Nottingham, Portsmouth and Cardiff were some of the other major cities protected.

Burning: A Starfish basket fire is pictured in an unknown location. The Starfish sites - which got their name from the initials 'SF', standing for 'Special Fire' sites - were intended to simulate burning cities during the Blitz

Decoy: A boiling oil fire is pictured at an unidentified Starfish site. Starfish sites were first created in December 1940 and received five blitz attempts just that month

Ready for action: An anonymous Starfish site is pictured. Liverpool, Bristol and Nottingham were protected by the sites - with the German pilots thinking that a Starfish site 14 miles away from the latter was Derby

Sham Paris

I read an article in the Telegraph about how the French Army had deceived the German Army by building a life-sized decoy city. During WW1 the faux City of Light was built towards the end of the war, in 1918. The whole purpose of this decoy was to draw the German pilots away from real Paris before radar was invented. When I first read about this article, to me it seemed really far-fetched. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how on earth the French army managed to create such an elaborate decoy. But you have to keep in mind the enemy; a German Gotha bomber, an open-top wooden and fabric biplane in which the crews clung on to, to aim and drop bombs by hand. 

The military planners had a grand and impeccable vision of how to deceive the German airmen; they went to such lengths of recreating one of Paris’ most iconic and famous quartiers and buildings. Along these landmarks included the iconic Arc de Triomphe, a wooden replica of the Opera house, Gare Du Nord and Champs-Elysees. The French wanted to make sure that this decoy would be as realistic as possible, otherwise it wouldn’t fool the Germans so they added translucent paint to mimic dry glass roofs of factories. But they also constructed life like industrial suburbs.

This fake city was built 15 miles outside of Paris along the River Seine, but unfortunately was never put to use. The German bombing raid ended before it was completed. Lucky enough, the real Paris was unscarred. But sadly the secret Paris was dismantled rapidly and built over and the only imprint that has been left behind is seen only in pages of forgotten archives.

Remnants of War

After reading through the research of the confrontational war between the British and German Q and U boats, reminds of the David and Goliath story. I see it as the Q boats being David and the power of the U boats is Goliath. But I feel that with all that happened in those battles, still to this day the spirit of the men who fought in the Q boats still lives on. These decoy ships played a massive and valuable role with the Allies in the anti U boat campaign. To this day we know of only one surviving boat, the HMS President that is currently moored on the Thames. This boat will always remain a testament to the unsung heroes who risked their lives under the veil of secrecy.