Joseph's Field in the area with lots of interesting facts being found out about the site. This WW2 brick structure is all that remains in St Joseph’s Field of the top secret Coalville Outstation of RAF 80 Wing (Signals). It was one of 44 such Outstations hastily set up in 1940 as RAF’s response to the discovery that the Luftwaffe was guiding its bombers along special radio beams laid onto British
armament factories. The wartime Abbot of Mount St Bernard Abbey gave the RAF permission to set up four sheds in St Joseph’s Field, and to build the blast walls around a radio transmitter trailer. The sheds and the trailer housed very specialized radio transmitters that sent out signals to interfere with the Luftwaffe beams, confusing the enemy pilots and navigators. The three Luftwaffe beam systems were very ingenious, and the RAF used a special codespeak to name them. The Knickebein or Crooked Leg system was called Headache, dealt with by our Aspirin transmitters; Ruffians was our name for the X-Gerat system, given a confusing dose by our Bromide transmitters, and the Y-Gerat, the Benito system, was neutralized by our Benjamins. It is widely believed that the activities of RAF 80 Wing did a great deal to keep Derby and its vital aero-engine factories safe from destruction in WW2.
