Wartime Fake Sheffield, decoys and starfish

[buck 11]

The doodlebugs that flew over Sheffield on Christmas Eve 1944 were launched over the North Sea by modified Heinkel 111’s of 1/KG53.

 

My father told me that he saw two of them fly over in quick sucession on their way to their intended target of Manchester, (can anyone verify this?) you can check out more information about the air launced V1’s on this excellent site

 

There is also a link to the Marples bombing including some interesting photos of old war damaged Sheffield.

I never realized that they used aircraft to launch the V1s, so assumed they came drom the Calais/Dunkirk area. Certainly launching form the Lincolnshire coast would put them over Sheffield on their way to Manchester. The Marples photos and stories link were excellent. Thanks

[Cyclone 10]

I still dont get this, would they ask people to turn there lights out at a certain time so these beacons would/could fool the Luftaffe, surely in a surprise attack your stumped with no time to respond. I know Sheffield took a few big hits during the war but what was the success ratio of this brilliant piece of inginuity?

 

Best thread on the forum by a country mile.

 

No, it was blacked out the entire time.

No street lights, no vehicle lights, no exposed flame outside, and blackout curtains in every window with blackout wardens walking the streets and checking.

Surely you've read stories about the blitz and the blackout?

[hennypenny 10]

The blackout:-

 

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/war/blackout.htm

 

http://atschool.eduweb.co.uk/nettsch/time/wlife.html

[Greybeard 10]

There was very little damage to any steel works. Fitzalan Square and the Moor were not exactly strategic targets.

 

They weren't targets at all - the pilots had overshot the target when the bombs were released. My grandfather was on night shift that night and had to walk all the way from Attercliffe common to Broadfield road in the morning.

[buck 11]

No, it was blacked out the entire time.

No street lights, no vehicle lights, no exposed flame outside, and blackout curtains in every window with blackout wardens walking the streets and checking.

Surely you've read stories about the blitz and the blackout?

You had to experience the blackout to know what it was like. The few cars that were around had their headlights hooded so that they only shone a few feet in front of them.There were many pedestrian deaths because of it. It lasted until 1944 after D Day, when the blackout was turned into the brownout . Then you were allowed closed curtain lights on, and it seemed like magic. The lights finally came back after VE day, but the austerity measures, the food and petrol rationing carried on into the fifties, sometimes even worse than during the war, conscription until 1959.

[buck 11]

They weren't targets at all - the pilots had overshot the target when the bombs were released. My grandfather was on night shift that night and had to walk all the way from Attercliffe common to Broadfield road in the morning.

We were on Attercliffe common that night. We were at the Pavilion watching Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers in the Broadway Lights of 1939 when the sirens went and spent the night in a shelter nearby while a big Irish dop stood at the top iof the stairs giving us a running commentary. We also walked into town on Friday to visit relatives in Abbeydale. long hard walk through all that debris, especially as the wardens would make you detour away from the worst parts, and the Moor was a shambles.

[alchresearch 214]

I wonder if snow affected the blackout during winter time? Would the city have been more visible if covered in snow?

[alchresearch 214]

My father told me that he saw two of them fly over in quick sucession on their way to their intended target of Manchester, (can anyone verify this?) you can check out more information about the air launced V1’s on this excellent site

 

There is a crater on Margery Hill where one came down. I don't have my Peak District Air Wrecks book to hand to provide any further details though

[Annoni_mouse 10]

I wonder if snow affected the blackout during winter time? Would the city have been more visible if covered in snow?

 

 

I would imagine that the reflected light from the layer of snow would , even during blackout conditions, be enough to illuminate the city to a certain extent.

 

I suppose the one saving grace would be that cloud cover enough for snow, would severely hinder any stategic bombing campaign.

[cartav 10]

ref CGKSHEFF of 3 Dec..... That's something like a response! Thanks!! I'd not realised this topic had been posted previously, next thing to do is get out the boots and head for Foxhouse. On a similar note, I can just remember a hut with either phone wires or electricity cables being sited at, about, grid ref 287825 to the west of the B road from Ringinglow to the A625. That was sometime after the war, but we always believed it to be allied to military activity.

 

In respect of Bibble's query of same date, I also remember that sections of Big Moor were closed off for public access until the Army had swept the area for unexploded munitions, and warning signs were erected along the A621 from Owler Bar up to the cross road junction at GR. 278740. Due to the proximity of the roads and the reservoir I'd be surprised if anything more lethal than blank ammo, thunderflashes and, maybe, smoke grenades or similar 2" mortar rounds were used there, maybe for Home Guard training rather than for the use of proper soldiers. There'd be other sites, too, as Totley ranges were always full of troops.

[Mantaspook 14]

I wonder if snow affected the blackout during winter time? Would the city have been more visible if covered in snow?

 

The first ‘starfish’ sites was ignited just 10 days previously on the night of 2nd Dec 1940 during an attack on Bristol, apparently they were quite successful and collected a total of 66 bombs, from then on they became a regular feature of the British passive defences.

 

However it’s doubtful whether the ‘starfish’ sites around Sheffield would have deflected many of the bombers; conditions for visual bombing were perfect. There was an almost full moon in a cloudless sky and a keen frost had whitened the roofs.

 

However, the Luftwaffe also had a radio location device that enabled them to ‘ride in’ on a radio beam, known as X-Gerät , it professed an accuracy of 120 yards and demonstrated its effectiveness during the devastating raid on Coventry on November the 14th, 1940.

 

The X-Gerät system was only discovered the previous August, it operated in the 70 megacycles band and there were no ‘off the shelf’ transmitters that could counter it, at the time of the Coventry attack there were only four hastily modified army radars, code named ‘bromides’ that transmitted ‘masking pulses’ to disrupt the system – unfortunately the pulses were transmitted on the wrong frequency so the bombers had no problems finding Coventry. The British discovered this when they examined a shot down bomber and quickly adjusted the frequency.

 

I’ve seen other sources that say the beam was ‘bent’ by the bromide transmitters, thus saving the East end steelworks at the expense of the city centre. I think this is unlikely for a number of technical reasons, not the least of which was the scarcity of the ‘bromide’ transmitters, also in interviews with German aircrew after the war they state that the city centre was one of the targets they were trying to hit.

 

For anyone that is interested there is a website about the battle of the beams HERE

 

There is also some further information about Sheffield’s starfish sites on the

SHEFFIELD HISTORY WEBSITE

 

To anyone contemplating further research about electronic counter measures during World War 2 I can recommend two books “Instruments of Darkness” by Alfred Price and

“Most Secret War” by Dr R. V. Jones

[algy 11]

Great thread!

 

Theres lots of bomb craters in the Lady Cannings plantation

 

I guess this explains why

 

(I thought Germans were rubbish at dropping bombs till I read it)

 

Deepak

 

The craters in the plantation are bell pits (old coalmines). However, there is a row of bomb craters just across the road, between the road and Brown Edge Quarries. They weren't aimed at the decoy as it wasn't ready for use when Sheffield was blitzed, they were just jettisoned, presumably by a crew who wanted to head for home sharpish!