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Caithness at War: Week 183

1-7 March 1943

On 1 March was fought the Battle of the Bismarck Sea, when US and Australian forces sank eight Japanese troop carriers near New Guinea. In North Africa on 6 March Rommel fought his last battle at Medenine when he ordered an attack on the Eighth Army which had pursued him all the way from El Alamein: the Axis forces were repulsed with heavy losses, and soon afterwards Rommel returned to Germany for good.

5 Mar Bower School Jaundice &c.

In Caithness, school attendances were still low with the children suffering a variety of illnesses, some of them serious. The Bower School log book for 5 March reads, “Owing to epidemics of jaundice and influenza there are only 18 pupils present.”

1 Mar Killimster School Break-inKillimster School, meanwhile, faced a different problem. On 1 March the Head Teacher recorded, “School was broken into and a quantity of material was stolen. Locks of cupboards were burst and blackboard was damaged. The matter is in the hands of police.” Then, on 5 march, comes the enigmatic note: “Above entry has been satisfactorily solved by police.”

5 Mar JOG Heather BurningThe John O’Groat Journal this week addressed the matter of heather burning. Under the new regulations, heather burning or “muirburn” could only be carried out by the tenants of agricultural land between October and April. As the journalist observed, “judicious heather-burning is essential for the maintenance of the productive capacity of moorland pastures. But in the spring of 1942 extraordinary damage was done to woodlands, young growing forests and fencing, as well as other interests, by extensive fires resulting from uncontrolled and indiscriminate heather-burning.”

Finally this week, the John O’Groat Journal reported how the “coolness, presence of mind and disregard of 5 Mar JOG Brora Firepersonal danger displayed by Mr James Brown, hallkeeper” saved Brora Drill Hall from being destroyed by fire last Thursday. Mr Brown, coming off duty as a Royal Observer Corps member at 4am, went to tidy up the hall after a dance, only to find a dense cloud of smoke and fire. After rousing the local police and Home Guard he continued pouring water on the flames; and given that it was a Drill Hall, “despite the danger from exploding ammunition”. In the end the fire was extinguished. But “the removal of a panel from the door and other clues found by the police leave more than a suspicion that the fire was deliberately planned.”