Starfish site Starfish sites were large scale night - time decoys created during The Blitz to simulate burning British cities . The aim was to divert night bombers from their intended targets and to drop their ordnance over the countryside . The sites were an extension of Colonel John Turner ' s decoy programme for airfields and factories ( code named " Q " Sites ) . Following the bombing , and near destruction , of Coventry in November 1940 , Turner was tasked with creating decoys for 7 major cities . Turner referred to the new sites " Special Fire " or " SF " . However , one early site ( near Bristol ) was given the name " Starfish " , which subsequently became used for all of the decoys . The sites were constructed around 4 miles from their protection target , and at least one mile from any other settlement . They consisted of elaborate light arrays and fires , controlled from a nearby bunker , laid out to simulate a fire bombed town . By the end of the war there were 237 decoys protecting 81 towns and cities around the country . Starfish sites did attract the attention of enemy bombers ; One estimate is that around 968 tons of ordnance was dropped on the decoys . Later archaeological excavation of the original " Starfish " , in the Mendip Hills , found no evidence of bomb craters . Background . At the outbreak of World War II , British high command feared a German bombing campaign on the UK mainland . Colonel John Turner , an engineer and retired Air Ministry officer , was tasked , in September 1939 , with establishing a broad range of day and night decoys to mislead enemy bombers . His initial work was with dummy aircraft , aircraft , airfields and factories - the decoys for which were dubbed ' K ' Sites . Turner also implemented night decoys ; dubbed ' Q ' Sites , they consisted of lights mounted on poles to simulate an airfield . In response to the German ' s use of incendiary bombs , Turner added fires to the ' Q ' Sites - dubbing them Q - Fire or QF - to add to their plausibility . Initially very crude , the fires were controlled from a nearby concrete pillbox . The theory was that after a first wave of bombers dropped on the real target , the decoy would light fires to simulate the previous raid for further waves to home in on . Special Fires . Following the night bombing of Coventry , in early November 1940 , the decoy programme was expanded to include towns and cities ; the Air Ministry initially ordered sites to be set up for Bristol , Crewe , Derby , London , Manchester , Middlesbrough and Sheffield . The new " Special Fire " decoys were set up to simulate the bomb drops of German pathfinder squadrons . By 23 January 1941 the programme had been increased to 43 sites protecting 13 town and cities and by March operational sites numbered over 100 . By the end of the war there were 237 Starfish sites protecting 81 locations . One of the first decoy sites was constructed on Black Down on the Mendip Hills ; it was codenamed " Starfish " , derived from Turner ' s original SF code , and built to protect the nearby city of Bristol . The Starfish name was eventually adopted to describe all of the SF decoy sites . The sites were located around 4 miles from the town they protected and at least 1 mile from any other settlement . Various types of fire were used - from quick burning felt to creosote - to simulate a recently - bombed town . Each site was controlled locally from a concrete pillbox ; the fires were lit as soon as the target town came under bombing attack . The aim was to extinguish fires in the town as fast as possible , leaving the decoy site to distract bombers . Examples . The original " Starfish " , in the Mendip Hills near Bristol , used fires of creosote and water to simulate incendiary bombs exploding . In addition , glow boxes were used to simulate the streets and railways of Bristol ; the light bulbs were powered by electrical generators turned by Coventry Climax petrol engines contained in two bunkers . Glasgow was protected by various Starfish sites located on its surrounding hillsides . A decoy site existed at Long Wood at grid reference outside Eaglesham in East Renfrewshire , Scotland . Clusters of impressions where basket fires once stood , bounded by fire - break trenches , covered much of the area in World War II photographs , and a prominent structure near the site may have been the decoy control bunker . Anti - aircraft gun emplacements have been noted at the site . Another site known as " Craigmaddie " lies on the Campsie Fells at Blairskaith Muir , . It was a co - located Starfish and QF / QL site . Carrington Moss , near Manchester , was another Starfish site . As of 2000 , there is a relatively intact control bunker for a co - located Starfish and Quick Light ( QL ) site at Liddington Hill overlooking Swindon . The bunker is at the edge of the small copse on the eastern summit of the hill , which is visible from the M4 motorway . Impact . A 1992 archaeological survey of the Mendip hills did not identify surviving bomb craters on the Black Down site ( the original " Starfish " ) , despite claims of their existence . In his 2000 book , " Fields of Deception : Britain ' s Bombing Decoys of World War II " , historian Colin Dobinson collated Turner ' s conservative estimates as to the success of decoy sites ; suggesting that Starfish decoys diverted 968 tons of German bombardment .