decoy airfields, decoy towns

I'm remembering Biggles - I loved Biggles - here's something from a synopsis of The Black Peril by Capt W.E. Johns....

"Whilst flying in England, Biggles and Algy are forced to land by fog and find a mysterious hidden landing ground. When an unknown plane lands, Biggles climbs aboard to investigate and is accidentally trapped on board when the plane takes off. The plane lands near Newcastle and Biggles escapes only to be pursued. He meets a young lad who is travelling to London. This lad is 'Ginger' Habblethwaite who is to share many of Biggles' adventures in the future. Ginger is sent to seek help, as Biggles has injured an ankle but when he returns Biggles has gone. Ginger gets in contact with Algy and puts him on the trail. Meanwhile, Biggles is being held captive in a nearby house and it doesn't take Algy and Ginger long to find him. Ginger sets fire to an outhouse as a diversion and Algy enters the house to rescue Biggles. Reporting things to the Intelligence Branch of the Air Ministry, they are surprised to be informed that there is no trace of any secret airfields. Everything has been cleaned away."

and then I picked this up from a BBC webpage:

"In the first month of the Second World War a secret department was set up in the Air Ministry to work on a number of projects to do with deception. They appointed a charismatic figure, Colonel John Fisher Turner, who worked with a unit of technicians from the film industry – Sound City Films at Shepperton Studio which was owned by Norman Loudon. Together they designed decoy airfields, towns and military bases which were then built throughout the UK."

So not just airfields - towns too... decoy towns...

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Paul T Conneally
Education & Regional Director World Haiku Club

Director Haikumania Project
http://www.cddc.vt.edu/host/haikumania/