April was the month when the Phoney War finally turned into real war. Germany had long been planning an invasion of Denmark and Norway, and on Wednesday 3 April the first German ships set sail for the invasion; the actual attack would come next week. On Friday British ships left Scapa Flow to mine Norwegian waters. Meanwhile, Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, took over as chairman of the Ministerial Committee on Military Co-ordination. And, given what was to happen in the next few days, on 4th April Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain made the misjudged observation that the Germans had left it too late: “Hitler,” he said, “has missed the bus”.
Air activity continued unabated over Orkney. Hetty Munro recorded in her diary, “On April 2nd some seven or eight planes came over the Flow at twilight as usual. By this time our barrage was ready and seemed to frighten the enemy as they didn’t do any damage at all.
“During this raid we were listening to the wireless in Stenness and believe it or not we didn’t hear a thing!” Later she heard that some 18-24 German planes were involved: “One plane came over the hotel quite low and went lolloping over the loch with black smoke coming from it.” She noted that one plane landed at Wick aerodrome “with two dead and two alive. Three Germans were picked up in a rubber boat and questioned at Lyness. They were from Lubeck and belonged to the Red Lion Squadron which has to fly to Orkney to get their wings”.
The raids were reported in the John O’Groat Journal, and showed how dangerous they could be for non-combatants. “At least two German raiders passed over John O’Groats, flying comparatively low… Two trawlers were at the time proceeding in the direction of Duncansby Head, and one of them was subjected to a burst of machine-gun fire from one of the raiders. Flying low over Duncansby Head this raider also treated the lighthouse to another burst of machine-gun bullets.”
Another sign of the increased tension now that spring was here, and in expectation of a German attack, was that babies in Brora were equipped with the “anti-gas protective helmets” issued by the ARP.
Finally, anyone with a mind to shoot pigeons, either for food or because they were a nuisance, was urged not to on the ground that they could be shooting a homing pigeon instead. Half a million birds were reportedly being used by the RAF, with 200 “on duty daily” with Coastal Command, especially during periods of radio silence. As the newspaper suggested, though presumably not only for pigeons, “Look before you shoot”.
