Starfish Site Formby Dunes

By Geoffrey Edmonds Site Wireless Operator 1940-43

Controlhut My story begins in mid 1940 when I was almost 20, I joined the RAF as a wireless Operator / Air Gunner, did training in West Kirkby, [then] radio [training] in Blackpool then further study in Wiltshire, Compton Bassett, [after which I was] posted to London to do a special course at the Northern Polytech, Holloway Road, just in time for the Blitz, terrible days indeed! One day I was tapped on the shoulder and told to collect my kit. I was lodging in a private house in Islington, a military police motorcycle combination was waiting for me, I got into the side car and was whisked away to RAF Stanmore. All very hush hush. Being a trained Wireless Operator I thought I may be lined up for dropping over France or some undercover activity, but it was to this secret site in Formby I went, along with 10 other chaps (as I recall), one Sgt in charge, no officer ever, which of course suited the lads, the Sgt was often conspicuous by his absence.

The photos you sent brought back much nostalgic memories, I could see again a 20 Year old going into the ‘Starfish’ bunker and sitting outside on Summer nights Smoking my pipe, everything was silent, not possible to think of war going on, the sound of the sea and the cries of sea birds. In spring Range Lane was extremely pretty, Very lovely hedgerows and fields all around. Joe Formby had a little cottage toward the sand hills, he owned asparagus fields. I recall some of the lads helped gather in on off duty days. My first billet was with a lady in Ryeground Lane, A charming person, Mrs Rheam, A big house on the right going down from the Grapes Inn. After a short spell in Ryeground Lane I went to live with Jack and Ruth Murray, a lot of memories of course, they were my second home, parents almost, they looked after me so well. My Wife Mary was billeted with a Mr/Mrs Wenzel, there she (Mary) had been Re-located to Southport from Liverpool after the shocking May Blitz in 1941. Mary was with the War Damage commission, we met on a blind date just after my 21st Birthday in June 1941.

[The Starfish Site was]..a layout of docks and other buildings, a lighting system and explosive detonations to fool the Luftwaffe into thinking there was something down there worth bombing. Attracting bombs to fall onto the shore, sea or open country, thus saving dock and city areas. Unfortunately the May 1941 Blitz had done terrible damage, [later] things settled down somewhat. I remember going down to Joe Formby’s Cottage and having a cup of tea and a cigarette with him. Sometimes I’d go down to the cottage and bring him back to the bunker to play cards. I never joined in preferring to sit out and look at the stars or wander the site. The Murray’s had a Spaniel ‘Brownie’ which often accompanied me to the site and around the sand hills when doing patrols, checking on installations etc. In the middle of 1943 the job was considered to have served its time. Two chaps, a Jock Walker and a Jack Martin, were retained at starfish doing dismantling etc. I remember the names of all the chaps with whom I served there. No doubt the years have taken a toll.

As I write this I can see Formby-Freshfield clearly, I know that my Freshfield Formby is no longer there. It was all so rural then and I have so many good times memories. I remember John Tasker with his little huts among the sand hills . Woodvale had some night fighters, Beaufighters as I recall. My only visit to Woodvale was for a few days in sick quarters with tonsillitis. I re-mustered to Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner, along with a friend Bill Brown, who sadly was lost on the night of the Nuremberg Raid, when we lost 93 aircraft. Due to a spell in Yatesbury RAF Hospital, I was posted to Air Sea Rrescue (ASR), due to temporary downgrade, I made it through.

My time at ASR was altogether different story, not always pleasant , we were either on time or too late and the weather was not like serving in the Bahamas or Capri, Don and I met when I was posted as an Wireless Operator to join an MTB which the Royal Navy had passed over for long range ASR. Don was the electrician and very good too. I learned that he was from Formby when we were in Gibraltar on the way to the Far East for the assault on Japan, The Enola Gay finished it for us, so back we came. After leaving Air Sea Rescue I went to Kirkham where I was put in charge of the Post office section dealing with returned mail from over seas and many airmen came to see me to confirm addresses, many had changed over the war years.

In 1953 I came out to New Zealand as a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force on a big aircraft from Lyneham, Wiltshire. Served six and a half years in the RNZAF and moved to Christchurch in 1959. We now have 3 daughters and 7 grandchildren all living in Australia. That pretty much sums up things.

North Merseyside & West Lancashire

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Preparation for Invasion

By May 1940, Poland, Denmark and Norway had fallen under the might of the German military machine and the British Expeditionary force was in retreat at Dunkirk. In the same month Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden announced the creation of the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV), later to become the Home Guard. Britain was preparing for invasion and with that in mind, on the 27th of May 1940, the Home Defence Executive was formed under Commander in Chief Home Forces, General Sir Edmund Ironside.

Britain’s strategy was defence in depth and came in three phases. A first line of defence or coastal crust was created, typically scaffold and barbed wire entanglements placed at low tide, behind which mined beaches, concrete anti tank cubes and fortified coastal gun batteries awaited. Piers, likely to aid a potential invasion were partially dismantled. The next line of defence was aimed at holding up the enemy advance and denying access to major arterial routes. thousands of miles of anti tank ditches were dug, bridges were mined and pre-existing barriers such as canals, rivers, and railway embankments were fortified. Finally there were defensive anti tank islands, usually around towns and defended villages, many with their own garrison of troops, these strategic nodes where designated with the letter A, B or C depending on how long they were expected to hold out against enemy attack.

Leeds Liverpool Canal Defence Line

Merseyside and Lancashire came under the jurisdiction of Western Command, responsible for anti invasion preparations throughout Wales, parts of the Midlands and North West England. The regions canals became part of a network of stop lines running from Liverpool to Lancaster. The Leeds Liverpool Canal formed a natural barrier stretching from the salt marshes of Hesketh Bank in the north to Bootle docks in the south and in 1940 the Directorate Of Fortifications and Works (FW3) set to, building pillboxes and other hardened field defences along it's length at major bridges and other strategic crossing places.

There were 6 basic designs of pillbox for rifle and light machine gun. However many adaptations were made to the standard plan to suit local conditions and materials. In places pillboxes were disguised as buildings or out-buildings, and in others, existing houses, barns and even garden walls were fitted with loopholes and adapted as gun emplacements.

Defence through Deceit

From the late 1940's the major industrial cities of the Northwest became targets for enemy bombing raids. In July the same year a National Decoy Authority was formed under the jurisdiction of Colonel John Fisher Turner. It's aim was to devise urban lighting simulations and dummy fire sites in order to mimic the light given off by furnace doors, Inefficient black out precautions and the airfield lights of taxiing planes. At other sites pyrotechnics simulated the effects of incendiary bombs and larger Special Fire (SF) sites could, from a pilots eye view, replicate the burning carnage of docklands and other industrial infrastructure. These decoys were known a 'Civil' sites and were given the prefix letter 'Q', a practice borrowed from the Navy 'Q' ships, Warships disguised as merchant craft. QL denoted a light site, and QF a dummy fire site, the larger SF sites were also given the name 'Starfish' sites. During the Second World War Liverpool was ringed by as many as 14 decoy sites.

The demolition of defence lines and decoy structures began soon after the end of the war and only a fraction of them remain today. However a few still remain as testament to the ingenuity and determination of the people who stood guard over Britain more than 60 years ago.

Details: Category: Uncategorised; Published: 16 November 2013; Hits: 26154