Secret WW2 bunker on Somerset’s Mendip Hills: A brief story of Starfish!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ก.พ. 2024
- When the bombs started falling on Britain in World War 2; a secret task force was assembled to fool the Germans into dropping their bombs harmlessly on empty countryside.
Their legacy is what remains high atop the Mendip Hills in Somerset, in the form of a still intact bunker.
They called it Starfish.
These videos highlighting what is slowly crumbling away and relatively unknown about,I find truly fascinating-keep them coming please.
Thank you! I will certainly try!
They done the same here Norfolk UK starfish sites and col turner and dummy airfields brilliant video thank you for sharing with us 🎉🎉🎉🎉
A relative of mine of whom I am very proud, operated one of the Starfish sites. He had had polio as a child so was not able to serve in active duty but, because he knew a bit about engines, he was put in charge of the generator that provided electricity for the entire site. His was located North West of Derby and was configured so it could appear as Derby, Nottingham, Sheffield or Stoke On Trent. His hut was located near the middle of the target area to keep cables and pipes as short as possible. One of his jobs was to go out and repair breaks in cables as they happened, and I suspect the story about the man who lit the burners by hand was replicated many times over by these brave men. As the enemy planes approached, they were as illuminated as you would expect in wartime but would turn off lights to simulate the blackout prior to an expected attack. They couldn't make it too easy or the trick would not work. As described they would ignite fires and smudge pots to create masses of smoke. I sometimes imagine what it must have been like, sitting in a brick hut trying to get the German airforce to drop their bombs on you.
What a fantastic story. Thank you so much for sharing it. You’re quite right to be proud of them! I know I would be!
@@The_Knight_Tales Thank you. I was involved in the Defence of Britain Project in the 80s/90s and when I met him, I realised what unique knowledge he had. So I arranged for a local historian to record his experiences before he sadly passed some years later.
@@Crusty_Camper that was a great idea! I wish more experiences and memories were noted down for others to be inspired and learn from.
This reminds me of all the subterfuge prior to the D-Day landings. Absolutely remarkable undertakings. Very bold, very brave and ingenious.
My husband has a book called 'Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' by Giles Milton, detailing an organisation set up in Spring 1939, founded in London, which details all manner of manners of ways to derail Hitler's war machine via sabotage. Some of the main participants listed on the back of the book are Cecil Clarke, William Fairbairn (The SAS has a knife named after him). Collin Gubbins. We strongly suspect this is the inspiration behind the new film starring Henry Cavill
The Fairburn and Sykes designed British Commando dagger is now being sold online at $400.00 and up. I bought one for $300.00 about ten years ago. The F&S dagger was used in the last ten years in the Middle East where three of the enemy were dispatched by one soldier who carried his knife in the war.
My uncle Tom, whom I fondly remember, told me about the fake aluminium factory constructed a safe distance from the real one, the latter being carefully camouflaged. In due course, the Luftwaffe bombed the fake and the real one survived the war intact.
There was a rail spur (reportedly from the main rail tunnel), into a very different and much larger Mendips bunker. Dad said he'd been involved in supplying machine tools for it, supposedly for building an aeroengine factory. Hesaid it was plagued with poor industrial relations and never produced anything.
You'd enjoy the Middlesbrough starfish bunker. Lots of litter usually but plenty of local litter pickers. It's cool to see the original and know more history of them
Some years ago I found a bunker on the hills above Clydach in the Swansea valley. I took some research to discover it was a former Starfish site.
Good video Luke👏👏
We live in Bristol and have been to Burrington Coombe and Blackdown, but we never realised this and obviously didn't walk far enough. How far along is this site?? It's a truly beautiful place.
One day we were on Blackdown, having climbed from the Burrington car park. We had reached the tumulus where there are wild horses, and we noticed the sky towards Cheddar was getting rather dodgy looking, as in, it was, lead coloured., and we heard distant rumblings. Up until then it had been a lovely, hot sunny day. We noticed the clouds weren't getting smaller or going left or right, but they were getting bigger, so we did an about-turn. We made the descent in record time and just reached the car park as the heavens opened and the thunder and lightning and torrential rain moved in.
We sat in the car watching people rush back to their cars and also drivers pulled in. even a BMW driver, who stopped alongside the ice cream van, grabbed himself an ice cream then parked up. We saw lots of others do the same. With the strong gradient the road itself turned into a river.
Another time we went quite far, got lost on the way back and by the time we reached the road it was dark, and we had to walk uphill on the road for about a mile! We kept thinking, 'Car park is just around the corner'..... Several corners later, it was!
The weather changes very quickly on the Mendips, so it sounds like you were lucky to dodge the shower.
If you follow the trail path west from the highest trig point you should eventually find this WW2 bunker. Alternatively it’s a short walk up from Tynings trekking stables. But as I say, park responsibly and observe the signposts. ☺️👍 Hope that helps!
Car park is just around the corner
is actually a classic coping mechanism taught in university courses.
Alongside the less inspiring
One foot in front of the other
it's old and good.
My grandma taught me it and along with her other one
Just think of something else
has served me superbly throughout my life.
I used to play on the ones in the field in Oadby, Leicester, back in the 70's. They have all been removed now though.
An excellent video that deserves a much wider audience, and a new subscriber too 😊
Thank you so much! 🙏
A lot of WW2 things are still being demolished. A pill box near my home that I photographed and explored is now gone. Two big shooting range backstops that I photographed and explored later blew down in the gales of 1986.
I spent quite a lot of time, well over 50 years ago, exploring Blackdown, but I never found that bunker. Well done! At that time mounds of peaty soil that delineated 'roads' were still visible. Have they survived?
Looks exactly like the one on crow hill outside halifax
If you are interested in this sort of thing . Have a look for the secret army . Men who would have carried on fighting as a resistance army if the Germans had invaded . Look under , The British Resistance in Wales - A Film Made For Abergavenny Museum .
this is agood one,nice find,new sub🙏
There was a very well-preserved one on the Eastern outskirts of Darlington as a decoy for RAF Goosepool at Middleton St George. I don't know if it is still there.
Well produced video.
that's very cool never heard of that before
Nice One
No signs of graffiti thank goodness.
Thanks for your video.
You think you know where you live and then...
Completely wiped out the city of Coventry did they??? No way!!!
Nice to know you were hanging on my every word!
Ahh…the ‘simple’ life before spy satellites, inter-continental nuclear missiles, cyber crimes and AI! 👍
inflatable decoy 'SAM' sites are still used today as seen in both Russia and Ukraine this year.
Medal of honor - american??
Nope - not American. Slip of the tongue. Meant to say medal for bravery.
Proof of all your CLAIMS are Required.
Get outside, breath some fresh Mendip air and look into these places yourself. I don’t have to prove anything to you. Fool.
Red Bricks do not date from the period you claim it was constructed. Bunkers are not built from Bricks either. Bunkers are built using reinforced concrete. This place any many like it have do do with maintenance and control of underground waterways as I see it.
Are you joking? 😂 nitpicking over bricks? First of all - red bricks date back to the mid 1700s. Quite a few of them made down the road from this site in Bridgwater. Secondly, the bricks for this bunker were for a blast wall rather than structure. The bunker was concrete - it’s just covered in grass and mud for camouflage. Genuinely never defended bricks before, but congratulations! You’re my first 😂
It is exactly what is claimed in the video as a few minutes of research online will tell you. Or try the book "Fields of Deception". The only things I would quibble about are the repeated use of "Hollywood" to describe the British film industry, and the assertion that this is the last survivor or the best preserved. There are at least two in Scotland in good condition.
@@user-pf3ye6yi9n Ok. Your feedback is appreciated. Can’t please everyone.
It was a decoy, you muppet. It wasn't supposed to look like a bunker. That would defeat the object.
No red bricks until after WW2! What the actual...
Scares me that some people are allowed to vote but it explains where we are.