During the Second World War several decoy airfields were constructed under the Command of Colonel John Turner, Royal Engineers. The reason these airfields were constructed was to lure the Luftwaffe's bomber aircraft away from more desirable targets. Known as K sites, they looked extremely convincing from the air, and in some cases from the ground too! Large painted sheets were pegged out on the ground to look like hangers and other buildings normally associated with an airfield, and to complete the deception life size dummy aircraft, both inflatable and of flat wooden construction - LEFT - were used. On some sites redundant Tiger Moth trainers and old service vehicles such as tenders - RIGHT - bomb tractors etc. were parked up to further enhance the overall impression. The K sites were aimed at deceiving aircraft flying by day but in order to deceive aircraft flying by night a further degree of deception was employed in the form of a runway flare path, which operational airfields had in order to enable it's own aircraft to land in the dark. Together with other lights dotted about to give the impression of vehicles and aircrew moving about, the entire deception could prove extremely attractive to a Luftwaffe bomber crew! These night time dummy airfields were referred to as Q sites.

One of these dummy airfields was built on the moors directly overlooking the B6232 in between the tiny village of Belthorn just outside Blackburn, and the small mill town of Haslingden a little further to the east, although I do not know whether it was a K or a Q site. Little remains of the airfield now, but at the Belthorn end there is still what looks like an air raid shelter with most of it's roof intact. To the east about 2 miles or so out of Haslingden, a large bomb crater in the ground reveals that the illusion must have worked at least once! Close to the crater a large concrete base plate is all that remains of whatever was constructed at this end of the decoy airfield.

The biggest question really is what was this dummy airfield constructed to protect? Not particularly far away over on the other side of Blackburn is another airfield - a real one this time - at Salmesbury - but I suppose it could possibly have been put where it is to draw attention away from the railway in Blackburn itself. I am not sufficiently expert in these things to say for sure though my money would be on it protecting Salmesbury which was associated with an aircraft production plant at that time, and still is.

In 1990, having had sore feet and humungous blisters far too many times, and feeling really rather fed up with the "hurry up and wait" mentality so endemic in the infantry, I left the 4th. (Volunteer) Battalion of The Queens Lancashire Regiment, and with Tracy as my 2I.C., took over the running of an Army Cadet Detachment in Haslingden.. Between then and 1998 we often used the shelter on night exercises with the cadets for an RV or the like, and I have many a fond memory of waiting in the dark, breathing in the heady aroma of sheep p*ss, and closing one eye every time a car came past on the road below in order to preserve my night vision... happy days!

The pix!!! If you want to view any of the pix in a larger size then click on the small picture of your choice and it will open a larger version in a new window...

A nice ride out on a warm spring day!	And here's the shelter at the Blackburn end of the decoy airfield...	The corrugated roof is getting rather flimsy now!
The steps down into the shelter...	Two rooms inside...	It's getting a bit soggy nowadays!
Looking out of a hole in the roof at the Grane Road...	Back up to the surface now...	Darwen and Belmont in the distance...
At the Haslingden end of the decoy airfield is a large bomb crater by the remains of some concrete works, purpose unknown...	The bomb crater...	Looking back over the moor it's hard to see how this area could ever have been convincing as an airfield but the bomb crater shows that it fooled at least one bomber crew!
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