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