Wartime Fake Sheffield, decoys and starfish

[Deepak_S7 10]

Great thread!

 

Deepak

[Annoni_mouse 10]

Don't forget that the city would have been 'blacked-out' and this was just supposed to look like the partial lights seen from the railway sidings or a furnace or a tram line.

 

Yeah, its worth remembering that navigating the night skies of wartime Britain was a difficult task, even for the pilots of the Luftwaffe!

 

Out beyond Grenoside, where I used to live, there were countless bomb craters where lost/confused bomber pilots jettisoned their loads before heading home.

 

And of course we shouldnt forget that it was one such confused pilot who caused most infamous bombing of the Sheffield blitz, the bombing of the Marples.

 

Nazi pilots were given instructions to follow the river down into Attercliffe and attack the industrial targets there. On the night of the Marples attack, one bomber pilot became disorientated and instead mistakenly believed that the shine from the rain soaked tram rails running up through the Wicker was actually the river reflecting, and jettisoned his bomb load on the Marples below.

[hennypenny 10]

I have asked my dad about where my great aunts pig farm was, and he says it was out towards Penistone somewhere. He can't remember exactly. Mum told him that the family had a 4 minute warning to get the family out of bed and bundled into the shelter - my great aunt got psoriasis due to the stress during this time, which stayed with her for the rest of her life.

[Greybeard 10]

Nazi pilots were given instructions to follow the river down into Attercliffe and attack the industrial targets there. On the night of the Marples attack, one bomber pilot became disorientated and instead mistakenly believed that the shine from the rain soaked tram rails running up through the Wicker was actually the river reflecting, and jettisoned his bomb load on the Marples below.

 

Hardly a stray - the night (Thursday 12/12) the Marples was hit so was much of the Wicker, High street and the Moor. The whole raid had overshot the target - they came back on Sunday night and managed to get it mostly right

[Annoni_mouse 10]

Hardly a stray - the night (Thursday 12/12) the Marples was hit so was much of the Wicker, High street and the Moor. The whole raid had overshot the target - they came back on Sunday night and managed to get it mostly right

 

Think we could ask them back to finish their job on the moor?

[sallonoroff 10]

When the “bomb” was examined it was found to be (a) made of wood and (b) contain a note that said “Bang!”

 

Haha! The German's do have a sense of humour!

 

 

.

[alchresearch 211]

There is a Google Earth KMZ file somewhere on the web with all these locations on. I'll see if I can find it.

 

EDIT:

 

Found a copy here:

 

http://s192798389.websitehome.co.uk/urbex/ww2sites.kmz

[Flightlevel 10]

Excellent thread - It seems this forum has been a little lacking of these for too long. It would be interesting if there is a book or listing of all the known defences and decoys around Sheffield during WWII. The use of decoys was indeed commonplace, certainly giving the illusion of a town some distance from a real settlement has been documented across the UK but also as a previous poster mentions, decoy RAF airfields and military installations. I recall seeing pictures of inflatable tanks etc.

 

Was something similar also attemped to create a decoy Suez canal too? Involving miles of shiny material and lights to give the impression the canal was 2 miles offset to the real position??

[alchresearch 211]

Although not in Sheffield, there are some great reports and photos of recent visits to some of these old sites on http://www.28dayslater.co.uk

[Tony 10]

This document contains quite a bit of information on the Burbage Moor sites. It also mentions some of the other locations.

 

Norton aerodrome was also (from memory) designed to look like a fully functioning airfield rather than just a ballon site, presumably as a further decoy.

[Annoni_mouse 10]

Was something similar also attemped to create a decoy Suez canal too? Involving miles of shiny material and lights to give the impression the canal was 2 miles offset to the real position??

 

Wasent that Jasper Maskelyne, the wartime magician who managed to 'hide' the Suez Canal?

[Plain Talker 11]

there was a programme on the BBC on one of their history series, about 2 years (?) ago, about the decoy hull docks. It was really interesting.

 

Regarding "decoys" in the Sheffield area, an elderly friend of mine was telling me an amusing story about a wartime "legend" regarding Steel, Peach and Tozer's "Seven Sisters" chimneys.

 

She grew up near SPT's works, and, to tease her as a child in wartime, she'd be sent outside, or to the window, to go and "count the chimneys".

 

Apparently, some days, there'd be five, or six, or even eight or nine chimneys...

 

She says that, to disguise SPT's very distinctive roofline, there would be false boardings erected around the chimneys to make two appear to be just one, or an extra false chimney or two put up to make it look like there were more in order to baffle the enemy bombers.

 

I seem to remember someone mentioning that "Lord Haw Haw" had said in one of his propaganda broadcasts, that there was an enemy attack planned on the "seven Sisters"

 

It was a really fascinating tale she told!