Thanks Michael for arranging this row.
Excellent pic, Jackie, reflecting well the enjoyment of a good row in interesting surroundings.
Apologies for misleading you into the reeds! At least it was a soft landing!
Apologies also for misleading our crew in Langstone Lady with some of the info about the wartime sites defending Portsmouth from bombing. I used the title “Starfire” to identify the project, when I should have used the term “ Starfish”. It started as “Special Fire”, but quickly changed to “Starfish” - supposedly because one of the early sites ( near Bristol ) to use the technique was called Starfish.
Most of the records easily accessible now attribute the control centre to the west and east wall of Farlington Marshes, but there was definitely at least one (Starfish 16) along the Billy Trail, and certainly a few years ago one could see the original cables (used to remotely control the ignition of the fire trays) running out from it across the shoreline towards the “Langstone Archipeligo”
The HBC tried to obliterate this bunker for safety reasons a few years ago, but you can still find evidence of it close to the pillbox along the Billy Trail.
https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=2cbd3e41-7805-4bf3-9641-a19051d47c4a&resourceID=19191and a good introduction is also at
https://www.brimstoneuxo.com/uxo-news/wwii-decoy-sites/and
https://www.welcometoportsmouth.co.uk/the-blitz-portsmouth.htmlor
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/90/a4061990.shtml
Locked
Mar 20, 2025; 6:30am
