The Remains Of Operation Starfish World War 2 Bombing Decoy Site With Massive Firing Range -Formby-

A Second World War bombing decoy site at Formby. It was commissioned in December 1940 as a 'Permanent Starfish' site to deflect enemy bombing from the city of Liverpool. In 1941 a 'QL' decoy was incorporated into the site as part of the 'C-series' of civil decoys to protect Bootle Docks. The 'Starfish' decoy operated by lighting a series of controlled fires during an air raid to replicate an urban area targeted by bombs. The 'QL' decoy displayed lighting to simulate the railway marshalling yards and tram flashes associated with the docks. The site is referenced as being in use up until 1943. Aerial photography from 1984 shows a control building, which would have housed an operations room and provided the decoy crew with shelter, located at the site with two other contemporary buildings at SD 286 047. Formby was one of fourteen civil bombing decoy sites for Liverpool, and one of fourteen 'Starfish' sites. DEVILS HOLE.. the Devil’s Hole blowout (National Grid Reference SD278054) has been a popular recreational attraction for generations of local children and is a spectacular viewpoint for walkers in the Ravenmeols Sandhills Local Nature Reserve. In September 2017, its ownership was transferred from Sefton Council to the National Trust. Blowouts form when a sand-dune’s protective cover of vegetation is damaged; sand is then blown down-wind and a steep-sided hollow develops. This may deepen until the water-table is reached, when the sand is then too wet to continue blowing. Aerial photographs show that the Devil’s Hole began to form on a high dune in the early 1940s, probably due to a German bomb explosion in 1940 or 1941. Instead of having an open face to windward, as in most blowouts, it still resembles a crater, with steep slopes on all sides. Wind erosion over seven decades has created an enormous bowl at least 10m deep, with sand over-blowing the original dunes downwind and burying part of an adjacent conifer plantation. A former dune surface can be seen as a dark band of soil around the eastern sector of the bowl. The main blow-out is orientated east/west, in line with the prevailing wind direction but a later secondary (southern) basin developed with a southeast/northwest orientation. FORMBY ROC POST.... On sand dunes 150 yards South East from Albert Road (unmade track), along path across dunes which joins Albert Road just West of ‘The Bungalow’. OPEN All surface features remain intact although the site is very badly eroded down to the roof of the monitoring room leaving the ventilation shaft and FSM pipe standing on top of concrete pillars and the access shaft on top of 9 course s of bricks. The BPI pipe has been broken off and the ventilation louvres are missing. The shaft has been capped with concrete but there is a large hole in one side giving access. The shaft and monitoring room have been partially filled with rubble from the demolished RN observation tower nearby although access is still possible. Internally one door lies on top of the rubble, nothing else is visible. A rough concrete shell surrounds the post to try and stop the erosion but this has sunk as the sand has eroded around it. Eventually the post was abandoned due to the erosion and a new post built at Woodvale to replace it. FIRING RANGE... firing range dating back to WW2 and according to the formby civic society the only surviving structural reminder of King's Liverpool Regiment whose main depot was here in Formby at Harrington Barracks throughout the Second World War. it is in a natural bowl in the dunes. The large curved wall shows a great deal of bullet holes, surprisingly the large buttresses are on the firing side. This structure has suffered a lot of vandalism and is slowly being engulfed by nature. STARFISH CONTROL CENTRE... This is where the generators were housed to give the decoy its power, it would also have been where the operatives sheltered in case the site drew enemy bombs - which it was meant to do. It was one of fourteen local sites (Ref: Colin Dobinson) all intended to fool enemy planes into thinking the lights these decoys generated were in fact, Liverpool. Liverpool's decoys failed to protect the city, although perhaps this one took one bomb away from the city centre - according to the Formby Civic Society. #WW2 #LIVERPOOLBLITZ #WORLDWAR2