Multi-disciplinary site investigations of WW2 allied aerial bombing decoy sites in North Staffordshire, UK

In 1937, the British government implemented a strategy to strengthen UK air defences, constructing a network of decoy sites to mislead enemy aircraft from bombing Allied airfields, industrial centres and major cities. This paper reports on investigations of three relict aerial bombing decoy sites in Staffordshire, UK, deliberately built along German radio beam directions to divert enemy bombers from high priority industrial target sites. The three sites were in varying states of preservation, displaying control shelters with concrete bed generator rooms, headlamp platforms, relict electrical systems to simulated aeroplane runways, in situ blast walls and ceramic pipe blast expansion systems to protect personnel from bomb burst air concussions. Site-collected data included drone models, ground-based LiDAR, geophysical datasets and 360° camera imagery for digital site preservation. This study demonstrates these bombing decoy sites varied in construction and brings WW2 conflict history into the wider scientific community and public domain.