Cuxton's Field of Deception...

One of Cuxton’s more interesting WW2 secrets was the decoy airfield at the top end of Bush Valley.

Bush Valley, looking south from Upper Bush...

Cuxton’s decoy airfield was part of a British WW2 decoy programme which began in January 1940 and developed into a complex deception strategy, using four main methods: day and night dummy aerodromes (`K’ and `Q’ sites); diversionary fires (`QF’ sites and `Starfish’); simulated urban lighting (`QL’ sites); and dummy factories and buildings.  Urban decoy fires were known as `SF’, `Special Fires’ and Starfish, to distinguish them from the smaller QF installations.  These were the most technically sophisticated of all the types, with each Starfish replicating the fire effects an enemy aircrew would expect to see when their target had been successfully set alight.

This campaign of illusion was masterminded by an engineer and retired Air Ministry officer, Colonel John Fisher Turner, who formed a team of film studio tradesmen, carpenters, and engineers for the construction of an elaborate network of dummy airfields and hundreds of decoy sites

These decoy sites were set up in large areas of open space to protect the real sites they were imitating, which could be towns, military bases, factories, airfields or railway marshalling yards and docks, in an ingenuous attempt to trick the Luftwaffe.

Across Bush Valley towards Cuxton, view from the edge of Longbottom Wood...

Cuxton’s simple “Q-site” night-time decoy consisted of a double row of “landing lights” powered by a generator, with the probable intent of protecting the nearby RAF 11 Group airfield at Gravesend located near the top of Thong Lane. 

Probably to the relief of Upper Bush residents it did not attract many enemy bombs, but it may have  induced one of our own aircraft to crash.  The aircraft was returning from a raid of Chemmitz on 6th March 1945, in a crippled condition and without radio contact.  The American pilot and his Canadian crew, perhaps fooled by the decoy airfield, crashed their aircraft into woodland on Bavins Bank and all were sadly killed.

It is believed that there were around 230 dummy airfields in the UK and 400 dummy urban and industrial sites, although very little now survives of any of these decoys, most having been cleared after the war.

The blockhouse that held the generator for the Bush Valley decoy landing lights can still be found in Longbottom Wood, however...

The generator is long gone but the inside of the structure is accessible and the concrete plinth where the generator stood still remains...

Opposite what was probably once the generator room, another chamber with a roof hatch and ladder can be seen. Perhaps this was where the fuel tank for the generator once was...

Although there is no fencing or signage, I am guessing that the woodland is privately owned, and that the owner would not like too many visitors tromping through and disturbing his pheasants to see this piece of Cuxton's WW2 history.

Update:  I have since found out that the land has been acquired by Vineyard Farms Ltd. They do not care much for trespassers, so be warned. Nevertheless, the location of the blockhouse is as below....

The blockhouse is actually indicated on the OS map for the area, so its location is no great secret. If you do visit the area, be careful. The condition of the site has deteriorated since I was first there in December 2018, with the blockhouse now being surrounded by brambles and a half-arsed attempt to screen it off with Heras fencing. So please respect both your own safety and the property ownership,  and don't go climbing over it. The site could be made into quite an interesting and safe area to visit with a little thought, but I don't see that happening somehow. Instead, I think it is more likely to be completely fenced off or simply demolished.

On the opposite eastern edge of Bush Valley field from Longbottom Wood runs the North Downs Way. Heading south from Upper Bush takes you across Dean Farm valley, which was looking very picturesque in the late autumn sunshine...

Dean Farm...

Dean Farm Valley...