51°21′54″N 7°04′12″E / 51.365°N 7.070°E / 51.365; 7.070

Control-bunker of Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage

The Krupp night decoy site Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage was a German decoy-site of the Krupp steelworks in Essen. It was designed to divert Allied night airstrikes in the bombing of Essen in World War II from the actual production site of the arms factory.

Description

The decoy factory was 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) from the real factory, situated on the Rottberg-Hills in Velbert. It occupied an area of 1.5 km × 2.5 km.[1]

The dummy factory was supposed to mimic a poorly darkened and operating Krupp steel works as the Royal Air Force only flew at night. The decoy system consisted of a large number of very rudimentary dummy installations of industrial building and structures. Among them were shed roofs, a gasometer, chimneys, a railroad, and elaborate light arrays and fires, controlled from a nearby bunker.

Efficiency

RAF Bomber Command did not correctly identify the decoy installation until 1943, by which time its bombers had dropped 64 percent of all high-explosive bombs and 75 percent of all incendiaries on the decoy rather than the real site.[2]

Today's condition

Today, only the control bunker of the decoy site is preserved. After systematic research and documentation by volunteers of the Landschaftsverband Rheinland (LVR) – Office for Archeological Monument Protection, it was listed as a historical monument in 2013.[3]

Museum development

The bunker is located on private property. Visits are offered on the European Heritage Days, historical walks or the Long Night of Museums.

References

  1. ↑ Grau, Lohbeck & Polkläser 2017, p. 51.
  2. ↑ Westermann, Edward (2003). Hitting the Mark, but Missing the Target: Luftwaffe Deception Operations, 1939–1945. pp. 206–221.
  3. ↑ Grau, Lohbeck & Polkläser 2017, p. 145.

Sources

Further reading

  • Crowdy, Terry (23 September 2008). Deceiving Hitler: double cross and deception in World War II. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84603-135-9.
  • Dobinson, Colin (2000). Fields of Deception: Britain's Bombing Decoys of World War II. London: Methuen Publishing. ISBN 978-0-413-74570-5.
  • Helmut Grau, Jürgen Lohbeck, Josef Johannes Niedworok, Sven Polkläser: Vergessene Täuschungsbauwerke des Zweiten Weltkrieges. Die Krupp'sche Nachtscheinanlage in Velbert. In: Archäologie im Rheinland 2013. Theiss Verlag, Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-8062-2986-8.
  • Wiebke Hoppe: Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage, Kreis Mettmann. In: LVR-Amt für Bodendenkmalpflege im Rheinland, Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz (ed.): Archäologische Kriegsrelikte im Rheinland. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8375-1323-3.
  • Elke Janßen-Schnabel: Das Scheindorf der Kruppwerke. In: Denkmalpflege im Rheinland (ISSN 0177-2619), vol. 30 (2013), no. 4.
  • Jürgen Lohbeck: Das vergessene Scheindorf in Velbert. Die Kruppsche Nachtscheinanlage auf dem Rottberg im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1941–1945. Scala Verlag, Velbert 2012, ISBN 978-3-9813898-6-9. (Summary in German)
  • Jürgen Lohbeck: Der Krieg vor unserer Haustür. Ereignisse, Erlebnisse, Schicksale im Zweiten Weltkrieg in Velbert, Langenberg und Umgebung. Scala Verlag, Velbert 2013, ISBN 978-3-9813898-9-0. (Summary in German)
  • Bau- und Betriebsgrundsätze für Scheinanlagen, published by Reichsminister der Luftfahrt und Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (Az. 41 L 46 10 Nr. 9659/42 (L. In. 13/3 III C/a), November 1942
  • Luftwaffen-Dienstvorschrift 2400 Betrieb von Scheinanlagen, L.Dv.g. 2400, published by Reichsminister der Luftfahrt und Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe, May 1941
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