Something different this time. This is the old
Starfish bombing decoy just outside Kilsyth, Central Scotland....
These decoys were designed to simulate blackout breaches to encourage German bombers to unload on open countryside, rather than built-up areas. This one protected the former burghs of Kilsyth (to the south) and Denny (to the east), both of which had many iron foundries in the '40s.
A close-up of the entrance....
...And a view from the inside outwards...
This entrance passage divided the concrete bunker in three. On the left was the crew room....
As well as this escape hatch, there is also evidence of furniture having been wall-mounted.
The outside of the hatch. The control bunker was earth-covered both for protection and camouflage.
The room on the other side contained generators, mounted on these plinths...
There are parallel lines of stones in the field opposite, about 300m away, which may represent the positions of the actual decoy apparatus itself, but the snow was lying too thickly today to let me look for them.
Most
Starfish sites used conglomerations of scaffolding poles to mount their apparatus, which could be anything from electric bulbs shining through plywood to represent a skylight window in a house, to burning fuel to represent foundry furnaces.