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*** Cache is not at listed co-ordinates this is a Decoy location***
To find the cache solve the puzzle below, the location is on private land with permission of the land owner and Natural England, do not go over or past any gate.
You may park one car in front of the concrete slab bridge which you may walk over to the gate but must not drive or go onto the soft grass verge at the road sides. This area is actually part of the Tickenham, Nailsea and Kenn Moors Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) so please take care not to stray or damage any flora and fauna in the area. Many thanks to Natural England for giving permission for the cache to be placed in a SSSI.
Operation Starfish
It is early in the morning and the Café has not opened yet.
There is a tap on the window in the back room and Michelle who is a Resistance leader enters through the French doors.
She has an important message for Rene’ the café owner, she starts with as she always dose.
LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY I shall say zis only once.
London will call today about Operation Starfish and when we know the date you must leak to Herr Flick of the Gestapo a decoy location of the GZ.
The British plane from RAF Lulsgate will drop a red parachute flare at the decoy site and a few other things that will help their party go with a bang.
That should keep them busy and out of the way for the real drop by camouflage parachute of the German uniforms and I.D papers for the escaped British Airmen who you are hiding so they can make there escape to the coast and home.
Later that day there was a loud wailing sound like a siren coming from the attic bedroom of Rene’s Mother in law, Madam Fanny La Fan.
Rene’ rushes up stairs to her room. Ze yellow Bed Knobs are flashing she shouts.
Rene’ replies it’s London calling you old Bat!. He lifts up the end of the bed to get to the hidden radio set and his code book.
ALLO ALLO London pass your message, over.
ALLO ALLO this is yellow hammer come in grey hawk it is on for tonight, we have the green light for Operation Starfish, yellow hammer to grey hawk do you read, over.
Yes i read you it is go for tonight what do we need to do, over.
You will need to lay out a V patern of white lights pointing into the wind with a red light at the point of the V to mark the real GZ. Light your fires when you hear the RAF Aircraft approaching so they know it’s the real GZ and not the decoy site for the Germans.
There is no moon tonight with some cloud cover but in the black of the night sky they should still be able to see your lights. over and out.
you can message for help but i am sure you wont need it..
STARFISH SITES
Starfish sites were large-scale night-time decoys created during the Blitz to simulate burning British cities. The aim was to divert German night bombers from their intended targets so they would drop their ordnance over the countryside. The sites were an extension of Colonel John Turner's decoy programme for airfields and factories (code named "Q" Sites). Following the bombing, and near destruction, of Coventry in November 1940, Turner was tasked with creating decoys for seven major cities.
Turner referred to the new sites as "Special Fire" or "SF". However, one early site (near BRISTOL) was given the name "Starfish", which subsequently became used for all of the decoys. The sites were constructed around 4 miles (6.4 km) from their protection target, and at least 1 mile (1.6 km) from any other settlement. They consisted of elaborate light arrays and fires, controlled from a nearby bunker and laid out to simulate a fire-bombed town. By the end of the war there were 237 decoys protecting 81 towns and cities around the country.
Starfish sites did attract the attention of enemy bombers; one estimate is that around 968 tons of ordnance was dropped on the decoys
The remains of a blast shelter part of a Starfish site can be seen from the cache location and road. It was used for a short while as a dwelling immediately after the WWII.
When bombing was expected in Bristol the government organised decoy fires to attract the bombers away from Bristol.
Most starfish covered 10-15 acres and each firing used 25-30 tons of flammable material. There were three types of fire, usually 6 boiling diesel oil fires, 2 paraffin grid repeaters and 16 sawdust and scrap wood baskets. The first two burnt for four hours and the baskets for one hour, so a quarter were lit every hour for four hours. Detonation was electrically initiated after a telephone call from RAF Lulsgate and if this failed fires were lit manually. Sometimes creosote pools were lit.
Current state of blast shelter and generator house
The corrugated roof and sides, and some brick blast walls of the shelter still stand. The main entrance door faces the corner of the intersecting droves and is protected by ascending stepped red brick walls. The door has gone but the doorway has a metal surround supported by a frame. The turf covering has also disappeared and corrugated sheets can still be seen.
Outside there is a freestanding blast brick wall. The building was used subsequently as a cattle shelter and is undermined by badger setts.
Other shelter
The bridge over the rhyne is reinforced concrete possibly from the small building on the west of the Drove which has since disappeared.
Manning
The site was manned by the RAF from 1940-1944.