Wartime Fake Sheffield, decoys and starfish

[8751]

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!

 

I read the RAF noticed the same thing happening when they bombed Germany in that a jumpy crew would drop their bombs to early and other crews would drop their bombs on the fires that resulted. Another jumpy crew would come along and drop even earlier and so on. They called this creep back. The solution was to have a number of special pathfinder aircraft circling the target who arrived after the main pathfinders. These were called the backers up and would look out for creep back and go in and remark the correct target again to make sure the main force stayed on target. In addition the target would also be being circled by RAF electronic jamming aircraft and intruder nightfighters would be circling the Luftwaffe nightfighter bases hoping to shoot a few down. Also the main force might consist of a 1000 Lancasters,Halifaxs and Stirlings.

 

When the Luftwaffe came to Sheffield there would have been a couple of pathfinder HE111's then a 100 or so main force HE111's and nothing else. So there is no wonder they weren't that accurate really.

[geocol]

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

.

Not the only ones.

 

There is an excellent book entitled "B17s over Berlin", which I am not sure is still in print or not, which is a compilation of tales by Americans operating out of Britain . They are probably the only Americans I've ever had the utmost respect for, as this book had be laughing and crying at the same time.

 

One squadron brought back a donkey , from a mission on which they had refulled in North Africa, and it became their mascot and was used to give local childeren from round their base rides.

 

Sadly the poor creature failed to survive an East Anglian winter, and died of distemper.

 

Having promoted the deceased animal to officer level; they dressed it up in the appropriate uniform and gave it the necessary dog-tags; and then parachuted it into Berlin on their next mission!

[KivWaHistory]

There was a large decoy operation on the flightpath into Sheffield, between Todwick, Swallownest and Kiveton. Dozens of local people went up each night to light small fires, burn lamps, etc. etc.

 

It worked to a degree, as kids were sent out each morning to collect the spent incendaries -they can remember having to make several trips to the local chapel with armfuls of the things.

[cartav]

ref. kivwahistory...post 63.

 

Sounds a bit dubious for locals to be lighting fires & lamps during the blackout. Anybody so engaged would have been in trouble with the law when even a chink of light from behind a carelessly drawn curtain brought screams of "Put that light out!" And collecting incendaries? If they'd ignited there wouldn't be much left... a tail fin perhaps at the most & that was unusual. If they hadn't ignited they were still dangerous & would be left alone for the attention of the UXB squad or someone that knew about those things. Apart from the blitz of Dec 1940, bombing was spasmodic and more likely to be the odd HE rather than a load of incendaries. Sorry to be cynical, but it sounds like an urban myth rather than a proper recollection of what it was like in the 2WW. Worth checking the facts before writing it up as gospel!

[KivWaHistory]

Hi Cartav,

 

Those who were involved in the decoy were hand-picked locals and the LDV, as far as I'm aware. Similarly, it was in open fields away from the village.

 

Lads did collect the incendiaries, which, as you point out, were mostly just tailfins.

 

There was spasmodic HE bombs locally, of which four landed on the local colliery, which stood to while the UXB squad defused them over several days. I'm talking to a few colleagues at the moment about German bombing of collieries, or rather lack of it - your ideas would be welcomed.

 

None of this is an urban myth - I promise! 'Urban myths', the construction of collective memories and how these are transmitted in an oral history context are things that I've been studying for a while.

 

Seriously, I've spoken to dozens of people who were involved from different sides, including local volunteers, LDV and lots of the teenagers who went out collecting. I've also seen the remains of the incendaries, a fair few of which are still in garages in the village!

 

Check out the Village Life section of our people's museum and scroll through to image 44, although I'm not sure if this is an incendiary or something similar.

[cat631]

Could you give us the link to this museum please?

[KivWaHistory]

It's the one in my signature: http://www.kivetonwaleshistory.co.uk

 

It is at the testing stage and we've got some issues with Firefox at the moment.

[Lostrider]

I can confirm that bombs dropped in the Pit Yard. My father was a miner and member of the AFS based at Kiveton Pit. He told me one of the UXB's dropped and buried itself in a spoil heap and one fell next to the pit shaft. The mine was closed while they were dealt with. He also dealt with a doodle bug which fell near Killamarsh / Holbrook and dug a trench towards a farm before coming to rest.

[cat631]

Thanks. I've just seen another thread where some are saying it is slow to load but it has come up fine for me. I will give it a good 'looking at'.

[poppins]

It's the one in my signature: http://www.kivetonwaleshistory.co.uk

 

It is at the testing stage and we've got some issues with Firefox at the moment.

 

 

Very interesting Kiv .