German forces continued their advance on Moscow, but faced fierce resistance from the Soviet defenders. In North Africa, British Commonwealth and Allied troops crossed into Libya, launching Operation Crusader with a view to liberating Tobruk; but Rommel immediately counter-attacked and drove the British back, inflicting heavy casualties. On 17 November the Japanese high command decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against the US fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Back in Caithness, Bilbster School was experiencing a particularly unsavoury problem on 21 November: “An insanitary odour near the fireplace in the senior class room was reported to the Clerk of Works. When a joiner removed some of the floor boards a dead rat was discovered beneath the fireplace.”

Across the county, the John O’Groat Journal reported an unusually late harvest. The district report for Dunbeath stated, “There is quite a lot of corn still waiting to be taken in, and some still to be cut, but it is quite impossible to get ahead with it. Potato-lifting is also at a standstill. Flockmasters and crofters have now completed their winter dipping.”

In Brora, meanwhile, “The lifting of potatoes is going on apace in all districts, valuable assistance being rendered by schoolboys. The threshing of oats is also being proceeded with.”

On Monday 17 November a mine exploded on the foreshore at Cleishgag, Latheron at about 10.40 am. The Dunbeath police constable forwarded an eyebolt which was “found at the back door of the house occupied by David Sutherland, Air Observer, New Houses, Latheronwheel, which caused damage to three slates on the roof… A large pane of glass in the back bar window of Latheronwheel Hotel, owned by Elizabeth Sutherland, was blown in, but no other damage was done in the locality.”

A row had developed over the use the Miller Institution gymnasium by Thurso Home Guard. After complaints that they had worn boots in the gym, the school management committee had now revoked their permission, prompting a letter in the Caithness Courier which referred to those who had complained as “potential Quislings”. The John O’Groat Journal now reported Provost Brims’ angry response: “The writer of this article… I can only characterise as being himself a contemptible potential Quisling. He is an ignorant person, or a very badly trained member of the Home Guard, or a mischievous busybody”.

Finally this week, the John O’Groat Journal reported the happy news that Mr John Ross, an English teacher in Wick High School, who had been serving on board HMS Ark Royal when it was sunk by a U-boat on 10 November, had escaped with the rest of the crew and was expected home soon in Lybster.