Site of Second World War Bombing Decoy, "Great Bromley," Essex (EHER 20307)

The site of a Second World War bombing decoy site at Great Bromley. It was built as a 'QL' decoy for Colchester as part of the 'C-series' of civil decoys to deflect enemy bombing from industrial sites in the town. In May 1942 a 'Temporary Starfish' decoy was incorporated into the site in response to the Baedeker Raids. 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 lights to simulate urban areas or industrial sites in Colchester. The site is referenced as being in use until 1944. Aerial photography from 1980 shows that a road has been constructed over the site and no features of the decoy survive.

September 1999: Documented in contemporary records, "Great Bromley" was a World War Two Temporary Starfish decoy, sited to draw enemy bombers away from Colchester, four miles to the W. This type of decoy was set up in April 1942 as a response to German "Baedeker" raids, the bombing of Britain’s historic cities. Starfish sites were the most sophisticated and comprehensive of the decoy types and were designed to replicate the large fires expected from a successful raid on an urban area. <1> <2> Many types of fire source were used to generate the variation in brightness and colour of a large-scale conflagration. The most numerous were basket fires, each a highly inflammable 2 ½ cwt package of sawdust, scrap wood, shavings, etc., all soaked in creosote. Dobinson, 1996, records that only basket fires were employed on Temporary Starfish sites. Firing of the arrays was effected electrically from the earth-covered shelter which housed the necessary switchgear and communications. This would have been located some distance away from the decoy area. Site visit September 1999: The contemporary Military Grid Reference of the site, 98/523440, is at the S end of open fields to the SW of Great Bromley. An aerial photograph taken in May 1946 shows a large field with a great many soil marks, particularly lines. No other fields in the area show these markings and they may be the fire and fire break trench marks from the various basket arrays. The area is now grassland and nothing remains to be seen. The same aerial photograph shows, 400 yards to the NE, the decoy night shelter standing in a field on the E side of a footpath. It is apparently the same shape, and almost certainly the same type, as that seen in aerial photographs of the night shelter which once guarded Chelmsford (EHER 20305). Little detail can be seen but the distinguishing feature of the angled blast walls can be clearly made out at its NW end. Nothing remains now and the area is agricultural land. <3> <4> Two photos of site. <5> Information from NRHE Aerial photography from 1980 shows that a road has been constructed over the site and no features of the decoy survive. <6> NGR concords with that given in <1>. In response to the Luftwaffe's Baedeker Raids a series of 'Temporary Starfish' decoys were implemented throughout the country at possible target locations. The 'Temporary Starfish' site for Colchester was built in May 1942 onto an existing 'QL' decoy. The Great Bromley decoy is referenced as being lit and attracting bombs during the 'Little Blitz' raids in March 1944. <7>