Hidden on a stretch of the North Yorkshire Moors is a small concrete bunker built as part of an extraordinary plan to fool German bombers.
The small structure on Guisborough Moor was part of a Second World War “Starfish” decoy site, built to draw German bombers away from Middlesbrough’s industrial targets.
Starfish sites did more than hide towns and factories in darkness: they recreated the look of an area already on fire to fool bomber crews into thinking they had found their target.
Guisborough starfish decoy bunker (Image: Flickr)
Lights and fires were laid across the countryside to mimic an air raid, hoping German crews would bomb open land instead of populated and industrial areas.
The Guisborough site was one of six Starfish decoys designed to protect Middlesbrough's industrial sites, all of which were operational by June 1941.
The elaborate deception was developed during the Blitz as an extension of Colonel John Turner’s “Q” sites, which decoyed airfields and factories.
After Coventry was devastated by bombing in November 1940, Turner was tasked with creating decoys for seven major cities.
Initially called “Special Fire”, or “SF”, sites, they later became widely known as Starfish sites.
The decoys were generally built about four miles from their targets and at least one mile from another settlement.
By the end of the Second World War, 237 Starfish decoys had been created to protect 81 towns and cities across the country.
Much of the Guisborough Moor decoy has since disappeared, but the concrete control shelter survives as a reminder of the lengths taken to protect Teesside during the war, as seen in the hidden leftovers of the Second World War still visible on Teesside.
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Today, walkers can find the bunker on a moorland route from Gribdale Gate: head uphill for about a mile, then turn towards the concrete wartime structure.
The route then heads downhill before climbing towards Little Roseberry, with Roseberry Topping ahead, before looping back to Gribdale car park.
More than 80 years later, the easily overlooked bunker shows how the countryside above Teesside was used to protect the industries and communities below.