LOST AIRFIELDS | EPISODE 12 • THIS IS FAKE - WW2 MAXEY DECOY AIRFIELD TO PROTECT RAF WITTERING

Ladies, gents and teddy bears, Ted and I travel back in time to a different type of airfield, a fake one. These fake airfields were known as Decoy Airfields and their purpose was to make the enemy aircraft think that this was the real thing and to bomb the decoy airfield and not the real one. They would function by day and by night and were given special code names. A K site was for day time operations and a Q site for night time ops. Some decoys would function both by day and night. This is Maxey Decoy Airfield in Cambridgeshire and it was to protect nearby RAF Wittering. It was built in 1940 and an officer would have been in this very bunker operating the controls to bring the fake airfield into life. From special lights on the runway to a spotlight to make believe a taxiing aircraft. Q-sites did pose some hazards of their own as some allied aircraft thought it was the real airfield, often ending in crashes. Some special red lights and flares had to be added to stop incidents where our own aircraft would land on the decoy runway. The airfield would have also contained fake aircraft and these aircraft would have been those that would have functioned at the real station. For example during the Battle of Britain, RAF Wittering were operating aircraft such as the Hawker Hurricane, so there would have been fake Hurricanes here at Maxey. Lakenheath had fake Wellington bombers when it was a decoy airfield. From vents and control rooms, the officers job was really to try and get bombed…Decoy airfields were a simple and effective way to keep the real airfield from destruction. Lakenheath for example was bombed at least 5 times, meaning that it saved RAF Mildenhall on many occasions. This ops rooms would have offered protection to the personnel operating the decoy airfield which were usually 2. #archaeology #worldwar2 #decoy Official Ted Coningsby Merchandise https://tedconingsby.co.uk/shop/ noTEDS https://tedconingsby.co.uk/noteds/ Ted Social stuff Instagram   / ted_coningsby   Facebook   / tedconingsbyuk   X https://X.com/tedconingsby www.tedconingsby.co.uk Ted Coningsby Membership: Join our channel to get access to members only perks. In reality, we rely on your subscriptions to keep our channel growing, so this is a MASSIVE help and thank you to ALL of you who have subscribed. We go all over the country to get the footage we need for you to enjoy but this comes at a cost. Your membership will help fund us with the fuel and the equipment we need...    / tedconingsby   TED'S SWEET AND NEAT GUIDELINES - Please: • Keep the chat and vibe family friendly (clean) • Make new members feel welcome • DO NOT POST ANY operational details or departure details • No politics or religious views • Do not ask personal questions or give out personal details • Respect our host, commentator, members of the public, aircraft AND armed forces (pilots, groundcrew and all serving members of the forces) • Keep the comments/chat positive. No negativity • Do not speculate on non factual or non-officially released aviation news • Keep it fun and on topic