Monument record LUD 049 - World War Two Naval decoy site

January 2014. Lothingland, Lowestoft and North Suffolk Coast and Heaths National Mapping Programme.
The site of a World War Two bomb decoy is visible on aerial photographs (S1). The site is centred on TM 5254 9889 and is one of the two naval QL and ST (‘Starfish’) decoys for Great Yarmouth (the other is located at Winterton in Norfolk (NHER 29752). It employed night-time lights to mimic ineffective blackout (the QL component) and a variety of flammable devices to represent fires started by bombs (the Starfish component). Other potential dispersed components to this site may have been overlooked on the aerial photographs, a few discrete structures and anomalies were identified in the nearby fields, but in the absence of more definite evidence or interpretation were not included within the site.
Additional information from EHA monument record (TM 59 NW 82) states that it was built as part of the 'N-series' of naval decoys to deflect enemy bombing from the Royal Navy base at Great Yarmouth. The site functioned as both a
'Permanent Starfish' and 'QL' bombing decoy. The 'Permanent Starfish' decoy operated by setting alight a series of
controlled fires during an air raid to replicate a military or urban area targeted by bombs. The 'QL' decoy consisted of a
grid of muted lights set out to resemble an inhabited area during a blackout. The site is referenced as being in use during
1942 and 1943.
S. Horlock (Norfolk Historic Environment Service), 3rd January 2014.