In WWII, this was RAF Brize Norton. At least, it was if you were a German pilot. “RAF Chimney” (known as “Q66”) was a dummy or decoy base. Q and K sites were part of a network of dummy bases and deception ruses that covered the UK, intended to draw enemy fire from real bases. They were built by a group of specialists known simply as “Colonel T u r n e r ’ s Department”, built by prop-makers from Shepperton Studios and staffed by civil defence and military personnel.
Col Turner’s Department built around 170 Q sites. Each was manned by two or three men who controlled the lights of their dummy airfield from a brick-built bunker on-site. As night fell, the men would shelter in the bunker and turn on the ‘runway’ lights. They’d use a searchlight mounted on the top of the bunker to fool the enemy that there were aircraft m o v i n g around the ‘airfield’.
Although Brize Norton In 1939, Royal was bombed Engineer Colonel by enemy Sir John Turner ‘planes, was appointed as Chimney the head of a escaped. But, national deception sitting in the programme, bunker at creating dummy n i g h t , RAF bases, often deliberately on the sites of old presenting a WWI airfields. Inside the control room at Chimney target, as Some sites (K e n e m y sites) were bombers circled overhead, it must have intended to look like real RAF bases in been a terrifying place to sit out the war. daylight. They had fake aircraft, buildings and huge pieces of cloth painted to look like In Chimney’s case, the bunker is all that hangar roofs. Others, “Q” sites, were remains. You can find it just off the lane intended to resemble an airfield at night - with that links the Buckland Road with Chimney. great success. “RAF Chimney” was one of these. 12
