Guest Article- Clwydian Range and Dee Valley National Landscape
Early in the Second World War, decoy sites were devised to deceive the Luftwaffe into wasting its bombs on open country, rather than towns, airfields, and industrial targets.
The first decoy in what was to become the Clwydian Range & Dee Valley National Landscape was improvised during the five days, (28 August – 1 September 1940) when Merseyside was subjected to heavy raids.
The heather moorlands of Ruabon and Esclusham Mountains were deliberately set alight and kept burning for days. This highly successful plan attracted hundreds of tons of high explosive and incendiary bombs destined for Liverpool and Birkenhead. Overgrown craters are scattered across the area to this day.
Late in 1940, a more organised series of decoys, code-named Starfish, ringed Merseyside, with outer ones at Llanasa and Llandegla. They consisted of rows of large baskets filled with flammable material ignited electrically from a nearby control bunker. They were lit on a telephone signal alerting the site to approaching bombers.
The chemical weapons site at Rhydymwyn had its own decoy on the lower slopes of Moel Famau above Cilcain. The remains of its bunker can still be seen.
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A similar bunker in somewhat better condition once controlled a decoy near Minera, protecting RAF Wrexham, better known locally as Borras. A runway flarepath was laid out, along with lights simulating moving aircraft.
Written by Dave Smith, Friends of the Clwydian Range & Dee Valley
