Bunkers at the Decoy Airfield, Nazeing

Image: © Lee Holmes Taken: 17 Apr 2011

One of World War II's carefully kept secrets was the building of dummy or decoy airfields. Nazeing Common was one of many sites, designed to be a decoy for nearby North Weald airfield. The land on the site is as it appears today, very hilly, not what one expects from an airfield. The lighting was mounted on wooden poles of varying lengths, so as to keep the proportion and angles right in its appearance from the air. The command and control bunkers are still in good condition and were built away from the layout of the airfield so as to give the RAF crews that manned this site some protection. These buildings housed generators for powering the lighting and had an ops room where the lights were operated from, and where contact could be maintained by telephone to the controlling station i.e.: North Weald itself. The other bunker 100 ft further down the hill was used for shelter and a general area for sleeping and cooking. This site was in operation from June 1940, but it is thought the Germans had detected Nazeing as a decoy site by the end of December. The site probably closed by the end of July 1941 as land was needed for increased agriculture and this was put to the plough in August 1941. These bunkers can be located North of the Nazeing Brook on the Lodge Farm side.

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