RAF Chimney

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. In 1939, Royal Engineer Colonel Sir John Turner was appointed as the head of a national deception p r o g r a m m e , creating dummy RAF bases, often on the sites of old WWI airfields. Some sites (K sites) were intended to look like real RAF bases in daylight. They had fake aircraft, buildings and huge pieces of cloth painted to look like hangar roofs. Others, “Q” sites, were intended to resemble an airfield at night - with great success. “RAF Chimney” was one of these. 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 ‘ r u n w a y ’ 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’. A l t h o u g h Brize Norton was bombed by enemy ‘ p l a n e s , C h i m n e y escaped. But, sitting in the bunker at n i g h t , deliberately presenting a target, as e n e m y bombers circled overhead, it must have been a terrifying place to sit out the war. In Chimney’s case, the bunker is all that remains. You can find it just off the lane that links the Buckland Road with Chimney. 12 Inside the control room at Chimney

A little perspective

I fancied a ride this evening. It’s spring. It’s light. It’s Wednesday. It’s been a bitch of a day in the office

13 13

Old fuel pump at Stanton Harcourt