Fighting fire with fakes [History Decoys]

Archaeologist Dr Bill Bevan set out survey on Burbage Moor in Derbyshire in 2005, he found more than just the signs of ancient settlement he was expecting. There was also evidence of more recent human activity the remains of what turned out to be one of the decoys set up by the British government during the Second World War in an attempt to divert German bombers away from nearby Sheffield. Apart from disturbance of the land and sunken control rooms, little remained of these decoys and most had been entirely forgotten. Decoys had first been used during the First World War on the Western Front by the Royal Flying Corps, who constructed fake airfields consisting of tents, huts and a few unserviceable aircraft, 3km from real airfields and in the likely line of flight of bombers.