In the Western Desert Rommel had retreated all the way to El Agheira in Libya where he planned to make a stand; but he had lost too many men and too much equipment since El Alamein and now, finding himself of danger of being outflanked, ordered another fighting retreat on 12 December. On the same day a German relief force under General von Manstein launched a major assault to try to break through the Soviet lines encircling Stalingrad and relieve the trapped Sixth Army.
In Caithness, the Wick Harbour Trust were increasingly dissatisfied with the ruling that 
foreign fishing boats couldn’t land their catches in Wick unless they were in danger of going bad. As the John O’Groat Journal reported, the Harbour Trustees had now received a letter from the Scottish Office stating that, despite extensive discussions, they would only “continue to do all they could to have the negotiations brought to a conclusion”. This was too much for Councillor A. Stewart, who declared, “The Trustees have been humbugged. They are only playing with you like a cat with a mouse. These department officials have no practical experience, and they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a gun you need to take to them. (Laughter)”
Also in the John O’Groat Journal this week, local fishermen had agreed to help out the authorities in the matter of first aid. “Volunteers were called for from among men of the fishing fleet, and the response was excellent. These men are natural first-aiders, their more or less precarious work making it second nature with them, and their rugged physical strength giving them an outstanding advantage in the job of stretcher-bearing.”
On 9 December the Director of Education wrote sternly to Mrs Miller at John O’Groats School on the inadvisability of school pianos being loaned out for Christmas Treats, “owing to the difficulty of having them repaired and retuned. If you think it absolutely essential, however, for the Christmas Treat that the piano should be taken to the Hall permission is granted subject to careful handling in the course of transit to and from the school”.
Finally this week, the police contacted Inverness Control Centre on 13 December to inform them: “About 15.25 hours on 12th instant a locally based British aircraft, No.D.J.412, crashed on the beach at Skirza Head, this county… Two of the crew had superficial injuries and the other four escaped uninjured. The aircraft was not entirely wrecked but heavy seas are liable to render it a total wreck.”
