WW2 Decoy Airfield at Lullingstone
By Paul Tritton
My thanks to Dr Susan Pittman for pointing out that in my review of Kent’s WW2 decoy airfields (‘Discovering Kent’s airfields that never were’, KAS Magazine 117, New Year 2022), I omitted one at Lullingstone, constructed to protect RAF Biggin Hill.
The site was located in Lullingstone Park, about 1km from Lullingstone Castle. It was comprehensively researched by Dr Wilfrid Duncombe of Farningham & Eynsford Local History Society, whose study was published in 1997 in the society’s publication ‘Miscellany – Brief Local History Papers 2’, and is available via its website, felhs.org.uk.
On at least one occasion, the decoy successfully lured German bombers safely away from Biggin Hill, despite being marked as a ‘schein flugplatz’ (dummy airfield) on Luftwaffe maps.
Nearby there was a Starfish fire decoy, ignited to convince bomber pilots they had hit a strategic target such as a town or factory complex ‘spot on’ and to carry on bombing!
The accommodation huts for the site’s crew were demolished in the 1970s due to vandalism and unsavoury behaviour within their walls! For similar reasons, their control shelters were razed by Sevenoaks District Council in the 1980s. Dr Pittman’s photographs show all that remains.
FURTHER READING
Farningham & Eynsford Local History Publication No. 2 (felhs.org.uk)
