Having secured the surrender of Denmark the previous week German forces now continued their advance into Norway. They took Oslo and Trondheim and turned inland; Norwegian forces, initially overwhelmed, began to put up a fierce resistance and managed to slow the German advance but not stop it. Meanwhile British and French troops had landed in Norway and now made for Trondheim and Lillehammer, but were soon engaged by German forces and forced to retreat.

The war really came home to Caithness this week when a bomb was dropped and exploded on a hillside at Acaharole on Watten Moor – though it fell so far from where anyone lived it took several days for the 40-foot crater to be noticed. It was only when Mr Alexander Campbell was out burning heather that he spotted it and notified the police; it was thought to have been dropped by a German plane taking part in an air raid on Scapa Flow the previous week.

This was the first bomb to fall anywhere on mainland Britain since the war began (other bombs had of course fallen on Orkney), and demonstrated clearly that the Phoney War was over – and that nowhere, not even rural Caithness, was now safe. (For a picture of how the bomb crater looks now, and more information on Caithness and the War, see http://www.caithness.org/caithnessfieldclub/bulletins/2002/ww2_defences_in_caithness.htm )

By coincidence, at a meeting of the county’s Public Assistance and Health Committee, the question of evacuation was raised. The committee had been notified that evacuees might be sent to Caithness in future, to which Provost Anderson responded by calling for Caithness to be classified a “dangerous area” and for its own children to be evacuated out of harm’s way.

The effect of the war on the education of Caithness schoolchildren was the subject of a letter from the Director of Education. Writing to Dr Hugh Marwick of Kirkwall in Orkney he said, “In this county we do not have much to complain about except that in one or two cases we have lost useful members of the staff but common to three counties in addition to actual air raid warnings is the disability of nervous mental strain and disturbance of continuity due to war conditions generally. For this a general allowance (possibly in terms of marks) might be made.

Finally, the effect of the war on ordinary life, and the determination to still have a good time, can be seen in this short report in the John O’Groat Journal of the spring holiday. “Few people left the town on Monday, Wick’s annual spring holiday. There were no cheap train excursions as formerly, owing to the war, but the Highland Transport Company ran extra buses, which some took advantage of to visit friends in the country. In the evenings the picture houses were crowded, and a dance held in the Breadalbane Hall was largely attended.”

(The main feature playing in the Pavilion Cinema that week was The Hound of the Baskervilles, starring Basil Rathbone, while the Breadalbane was showing The Sisters, starring Errol Flynn and Bette Davis.  

Coming soon! Week 34, 22nd - 228th April 1940, will be published on Monday 22nd April 2013. To view previous issues please use the menus on the right hand side of the page.

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