Again a fascinating weeks news.

I can not help but compare Col Ian McHardy with Captain Mainwaring of Dad's Army he was quite similar in many ways.

It is fascinating to read that letter from the policeman referring to his colleague in the vehicle as just "Carter".

At that time Edwin Carter and his brother were very well known Wick Bobbies . All the policemen in the villages were also well known and stayed in their postings for all the war years. There was a village policemen (if I remember correctly)as follows, McKay in Castletown, Green in Lybster and Cormack in Watten. The Chief Constable Cormack had a prestigious job he was a native of Bower. These village cops had huge work loads imposed upon them as the villages of Watten and Castleton became garrison towns with battalions of troops including Poles and of
course the huge POW camp in Watten. arriving daily.
The airfields at Thurdistoft and Skitten were beginning to be built and dozens of Wimpey lorries began to hurtle from quarries such as Bower with rubble and tar macadam for the runways. We lived ot far from the Bower Quarry and the almost daily blasting to quarry the rock was often mistaken for bombs and saw a many a pupil dive for cover mistakenly to the amusement of some.
The very narrow roads in the county took a terrible pounding and many accidents involving lorries took place.

At this time too it was fascinating to watch "practice dog fights" by RAF spitfires flying so high that they left vapour trails whilst doing mock attacks on each other - honing their skills for the Battle of Britain.

I remember the Ration books being issued to my father at the Gillock school and it caused great bewilderment to the old folks. Living on a farm my family did not notice much except that Butcher meat etc was severely cut. We had a butcher van from Halkirk on a Sat and all we got was a very small parcel of sausages and chops etc. As the war went on the quality of the sausages deteriorated as they substituted more and more breadcrumbs for meat.
Bread was delivered to the Allan,s shop in Gillock . E. Campbell in his van from Wick on a Friday. Two loaves joined together was called a quarter and a single loaf was known as a "half loaf" for some reason.
Thankfully my mother made flour scones and oat cakes on a griddle hanging from a swey over a peat fire in an open hearth. Bread rationing was not too bad for us
It was about this time we got our first savings book. Each child had a Post Office Savings book and we bought a six penny stamp every Friday. The teacher would collect the money and a pupil would be delegated to run up the road to the Post Office for the stamps. We were all encouraged to save for Britain and there would be a Warship Week etc, The walls of the school and post offices etc were festooned with posters encouraging people to take out war savings. It seemed as if there was a campaign for money every month or so and then a poster depicting a cartoon figure called a "Squander Bug" appeared. Another poster which featured was one concerning The Colorado beetle" the Government were terrified that it would proliferate and damage the precious potato crop..
We began to listen out for German planes and they were easy to identify as they had a distinctive whine and I remember lying terrified every time they passed over in case they dropped a bomb on our isolated farm. Of course when a bomb did drop, as it did in Clyth all the young teenage lads were in the hunt for pieces of debris as trophies of sorts.
Yes Caithness at that time was an exciting place for a five yearold to be.
Looking forward to future extracts.
JC

Hi John - another fascinating contribution, many thanks! I read in the police files of a young lad who found an unexploded bomb and took it home and buried it in the garden, to the consternation of the authorities!

There was also a lot of friction between the Council and the War Department over who should pay for repairing the roads damaged by the treads of armoured vehicles and all the military traffic...

Many thanks again, and please keep in touch.

I see an error in my above comment re the name of the Watten "bobby". He was Couper not Cormack, I think. He was a tall good looking fellow who patrolled his beat by bike a large area indeed. In those days we youngsters were always scared to death of policemen for some reason. During this time more and more young men and women and not so young were being "called up" to join the forces. Those engaged in agriculture were exempt but had to join the "Home Guard". Some went with no qualms but the older men and women were reluctant as they remembered the tremendous loss of life in the 1914-18 war. There was little real news about as the radio sets were just coming in to general use and the newspapers were heavily censored. People were reminded continually that "Careless talk costs lives"
Letters sent were also censored and people were warned not to relate details of troops army movements etc. In Bower we could hear the boom of the guns from the Royal Navy ships at gunnery drill.

Re the damage to the roads this was caused mainly by "Bren Gun Carriers" a type of tracked vehicle which could travel at about twenty mph and there were many travelling around the roads of Watten and Bower but I never saw a tank. There were many armoured cars though.
Once going home from school we were thrilled to see a Bren Gun Carrier hurtle of the road into a deep ditch scarring the road and bank. We ran to help the soldiers but happily they were all just shaken up. A nearby farmers wife came over the fields with pan cakes and tea and we all had a picnic until dispatch riders and rescue vehicles arrived.
We had great excitement when going home from school we would see great columns of marching infantry from the HLI they were on route marches to toughen them up for future battles. I will never forget the sight of a platoon of them all sitting with their boots and socks off for a foot inspection by an officer by the roadside at Gavenston Lodge.
These army manoeuvers involved hundreds of troops and the roads were lined with lorries. The dispatch riders on their motor bikes were always on the go and they travelled at great speed dressed in their distinctive safety helmets.
Sometimes these columns of armoured vehicles would be halted by the side of the roads for hours and my mother would have us go out to the nearest lorry with a basket of scones and tea for the grateful soldiers.
More info later....
JC