This week the Battle of Britain entered a new phase, as Goering directed the Luftwaffe to concentrate on British aircraft factories and then, on 23 August, on fighter bases in Kent. This was the crucial stage of the battle, as the RAF was becoming exhausted and struggling to replace its losses. Birmingham and Portsmouth were bombed. On 20 June Churchill gave his famous speech in praise of the RAF, “Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few”. But then, on 24 August, a lone German plane bombed London and changed the course of the battle: for in retaliation Churchill ordered the bombing of Berlin, an act which would lead Hitler to switch the German offensive away from airfields to British towns and cities. Also this week, Italian forces completed their conquest of British Somaliland.
Caithness County Council decided to make a direct contribution to the Battle of Britain by starting a Fighter Plane Fund, to raise the money to buy a “fighter airplane” which would be named the Caithness or John O’Groats fighter plane.
The apparently random bombing of Caithness by German aircraft continued this week, when a bomb fell on East Clyth. Police Constable John Green of Lybster reported: “Please find enclosed herewith pieces of metal found near the two craters made by bombs that fell about 10 p.m. last night 22nd instant, about 30 yards east of the house occupied by Mr William Miller, The Moors, East-Clyth. The windows and door of Mr Miller’s house were completely shattered, but no person was injured.”
That same night, a police car on its way to view the bomb site ran into a Home Guard patrol – almost literally. A letter written next day to Ian M’Hardy, Home Guard commander, tells the story. “Near Occumster three shadowy figures suddenly loomed up in front of us on the road and stopped the car.” These were Home Guardsmen demanding to see the occupants’ identity cards: “The point is, without the regulation red lamp, they were in definite danger of being run down; and if they had carried rifles but no lamps we would have been in even more serious danger had we not stopped!”
Meanwhile the regulation of food intensified when it was announced that as of 26 August only four shapes of standard bread loaf would be made: tin loaves, sandwich loaves, oven-bottom loaves and Scotch batch loaves [i.e., loaves baked close together in the oven so their sides stick together and stay soft]. Interestingly, a 1 pound weight limit was to be imposed, except in Scotland “where a tin loaf of 1 pound 12 ounces will be allowed.”
Finally, David Manson of The Huts, Wick, appeared in court this week, charged with disorderly conduct and breach of the peace when he called at the Food Control Office to enquire about his ration book. When he was told it would be forwarded to him he allegedly swore and became violent, so that the police had to handcuff him. Mr Manson denied the disorderly charge, but admitted using bad language (“A fellow swears every day, I suppose”), and wanted to know who hit him on the head (Provost Anderson, deputy food controller, replied, “I did so in trying to defend myself”). He was fined £2, to which he remarked, “This is a funny war”.
