As Russian forces invaded Finland and the “Winter War” began, Finnish forces fell back to the Mannerheim Line, a defensive fortification line running across the Karelian Isthmus which the Russian troops now attacked in force.

In her diary of wartime life on Orkney Hetty Munro noted gloomily: “I think everyone has lost interest in this War really and nobody cares much what happens next. Russia has now invaded Finland and I expect will get Norway and Sweden next in which case people seem to think that we will join forces with the Huns against Communism!”

(Which is an object lesson that it’s one thing to read about events many years later, but quite another to live through them with no idea what was going to happen…)

In Caithness, the impact of the war on everyday life was highlighted in a case from the John o’Groats Journal. A private letter sent from Thurso was stopped at the censor’s office in Inverness and returned; apparently the writer had referred to “naval, military or other matters which have not already become common knowledge” – and, as the paper said, even then there should be “no local embellishments or improvements to adorn the tale” and aid identification.

As the war progressed more and more elements of daily life came under Government control; now it was the turn of fishing. Before the war, the regulation of the herring industry (“the licensing of boats, curers, kipperers, etc., for regulating the fishing and the disposal of the catch”) had been done by the Herring Industry Board. Now this was suspended, and the actual fishing came under the Fishery Departments and the Admiralty, while the catch came under the Ministry of Food.

Sadly, at least one group of children would not be coming home for Christmas this year. When German planes started flying over Caithness, soem children had been sent to school in North Berwick. Now the Director of Education wrote to a parent to say that “taking into consideration the difficulty of transport from North Berwick to Caithness under present conditions and the fact that the children did not leave until the end of October” they would have to spend the Christmas vacation away from home.

Finally, following last week’s report of the tribunal of a conscientious objector, the John o’Groat Journal carried a letter from an “Ex Serviceman” which showed the strong feelings aroused by such a stance. The writer suggested that the young man in question, a student, should have his bursary removed if he wasn’t prepared to fight for the state that was supporting him.

Coming soon! Week 15, 11 - 17  December 1939, will be published on Monday 10  December 2012. To view previous issues please use the menus on the right hand side of the page.

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