A Skidby Volunteer Team Exhibition About WWII, to Mark the 75Th Anniversary of VE Day
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A Skidby volunteer team exhibition about WWII, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day. Defence and Deception The Airfield Deception Campaign Protecting the city In 1939, the R.A.F. began planning with the Air Ministry to establish decoy airfields near to their In an effort to confuse German bombers heading for Hull, an arrangement of 47 water-filled operational stations as they were vulnerable to being attacked. They needed the decoys to concrete tanks, each one illuminated by an overhead lamp, was constructed on the Outstray. divert the enemy bombing; dozens of dummy airfields began to be built with elaborate props This was a large area of saltings on the north bank of the Humber estuary, downstream from taken from the Shepperton Studios, London. To protect the real airfields, the dummies were Hull. The tanks were designed and positioned in such a way as to simulate the Hull docks at constructed in sparsely populated areas near to their parent station, where enemy bombers night in an imperfectly blacked out state. would drop their bombs not realising that it was a fake airfield. Parent stations in the East Riding The walls of the tanks were 0.5m high, and were either rectangular (9m by 5m), right-angled were at Leconfield, Driffield, Catfoss, Pocklington and Holme-on-Spalding-Moor. Decoys were triangle (6.5m by 6.5m) or pentagonal (10m by 9m). built at Routh, Skipsea, Skerne, Kilham, Beeford, Burnby and South Newbald. The lamps were attached to the top of 3metre high wooden posts set in concrete and were angled to shine onto the water- filled tanks. The overhead lamps were known as ‘Leaking Lights’ and were operated by the Royal Navy from a post centred near Little Humber farm at Paull. Dummy aircraft such as this were designed to confuse bombers that were attacking airfields. Skipsea decoy, protecting Catfoss airfield, was Photograph of Aldbrough bombing decoy as it was at the equipped with dummy aircraft. end of the war, 13th April 1945 The two drains situated at [1] were dammed to flood the area between them in imitation of the River Hull in 1941. [2] shows the area at Cherry Cob Sands in Holderness, East Yorkshire where the decoy ponds (right) were situated. Coastal defences After the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940 it was thought that an invasion of British shores was very likely. The Holderness Coast was very vulnerable and the landing places for the enemy would certainly include Atwick, Mappleton, Withernsea and Easington right down the estuary to Sunk Island and Paull. Defence measures were needed to prevent such attacks going unopposed. Along the beaches of the Holderness coast, pillboxes were to be built and the Home Guard and Territorials were given training. Pillboxes were very important for coastal defence, the only snag being they were static. They were solidly made and were tough obstacles for attacking Coastal defences, Holderness coast forces throughout the Second World War. They were manned 24 hours a day. To create further confusion the real airfields were disguised. A camouflage scheme, such as the one for Pocklington airfield made the airfield appear as agricultural fields. Pillboxes, Paull Stone Creek anti-aircraft battery During the winter of 1939 the Germans began to drop magnetic mines in the Humber. It was the Located at the western end of Sunk Island, between Hull and job of the ‘Wrens’ (Women’s Royal Naval Service) who were deployed at Fort Paull to degauss Spurn Head, Stone Creek has the best preserved remains of a ships using electric cables laid over the river bed, so would not set off the magnetic mines. WWII Heavy Anti-aircraft gun site in the East Riding. Even the Beach defences were a matter of urgency; soldiers and civil engineers caused great concern as domestic buildings, although ruined, are a rare survival; at the first rolls of barbed wire were washed out with the tide. A row of scaffolding to prevent tanks most other sites they have been demolished. The site was and vehicles landing and large anti-tank blocks were created. On top of the cliffs there were originally known as Station J when it opened in September reinforced concrete pill boxes and six pounder gun emplacements. 1939, fitted with 3 inch guns. From August 1941 it became Stone Creek, west of Sunk Island Station H9. At around the same women of the Auxiliary Territorial Service were at the site as radar operators. The other defences, such as anti-aircraft batteries and, most importantly, the development of radar played a key part in the defence of Britain. Anti- aircraft batteries, such as that at Hornsea, operated searchlights against incoming German raids. The searchlights were mainly used to enable gunners to take accurate aim at night, but they could be used to help damaged bombers navigate in the dark on their return. This was not without its hazards. Mary Latham of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) Impressive remains of Sunk Island battery. It was Remains of the Stone Creek gun emplacements. reported that: “During our time in Hull we shot down originally built during the Great War to defend the Humber one of our own aircraft (a Wellington) the crew gave estuary. It was reactivated during WWII and equipped with two 4.7 inch quick firing guns. It was also the Control The site was abandoned in November 1944 when the us the wrong signal. Fortunately he landed safely Centre for an anti-submarine minefield in the river. guns and staff were moved to Ringborough, on the with just the tail missing. We were commended for coast near Aldbrough, to counter the threat from the our accurate firing but the crew were not impressed. V1 flying bomb. The remains of this installation have Hull was badly hit at the time.” been lost to coastal erosion, as have the remains of the ancient village of Ringborough. In the end Britain was not invaded but all that had been put in place seemed to be a deterrent. At the end of the war all the defences were dismantled. “The beaches were cleared and paths made through the maze of barbed wire”. Traps were still about but “still one must not complain Drawings of aircraft at Stone Creek HAA site, as at least one could wander along the shore, swim or sunbathe”. presumably to aid distinguishing friend and foe. A Skidby volunteer team exhibition about WWII, to mark the 75th anniversary of VE day. Auxiliaries and Territorials In 1940 the threat of invasion became imminent as the Germans had begun to assemble a massive force on the other side of the English Channel. With the amount of equipment losses in France, and the lack of reserves, this became a critical time in our defence of Great Britain. Defences such as using canals and rivers as gigantic anti-tank ditches were in place; but Winston Churchill realised that this was not enough to slow any enemy. One solution was the creation of a highly secret volunteer army of saboteurs called the ‘Auxiliary Units’. Training Men would be discreetly invited to join a local Auxiliary unit Hideouts because they possessed a valued skill such as Each Auxiliary Patrol had an Operational Base or hideout. Auxiliary Unit hideouts were all made marksmanship, or knowledge of the local landscape. Most of differently, but were large enough to house six or seven men. Usually constructed underground, the patrol leaders would be recruited from the Home Guard, the hideouts were eventually fitted with bunks, cooking stoves, Tilley lamps and chemical toilets. with only the best and fittest men selected. They were not They were stocked with enough food and water to sustain a patrol for as long as a month. enrolled in the regular forces; they were in effect private Most hideouts had plenty of room for the patrols’ citizens. arms, ammunition and sabotage material, but an The county was under the control of an Intelligence Officer extra hide could be dug nearby to hold stores of who was a volunteer forces officer with the rank of Captain. Auxiliary Unit training additional food and ammunition. The men would have to sign the Official Secrets Act and would have their own, and their Engineers would dig a giant hole for the secret families’ backgrounds checked for security. bunkers, then lay a concrete floor and roof it with a half-cylinder of corrugated iron. They were 12 to 15 feet in length and tall enough to stand up in. One end had an entrance shaft that was lined The Auxiliaries were intended to carry out sabotage, guerrilla warfare with brick or corrugated iron. At the other end and spying. Emerging at night from their Underground operations was an escape tunnel, often a tube made of con- bases, their purpose was to carry out attacks against enemy targets crete that ran 20 to 30 feet away from the base. such as supply dumps, railway lines, convoys and enemy occupied Plan of Rise Auxiliary Unit hideout. airfields. In the East Riding, Brough, Catfoss, Driffield, Leconfield and Cottam were listed as Class 1 airfields, and many Operational Bases were sited near these for high priority of sabotage in the event of an Cottingham Patrols invasion. The Operational Base for the Cottingham North Patrol was on the site of the Grange at Harland Rise, Cottingham. The hide was beneath a greenhouse and the patrol was once Auxiliary Unit badge almost wiped out by fumes from the boiler house. Fortunately patrol member Dr Lindsay who had been on a call returned to Intelligence Officer find his comrades on the point of death .