At the start of the week Hitler declared that Germany was winning the Battle of the Atlantic, with more than 200,000 tons of Allied shipping sunk in the previous 48 hours. In Holland the German authorities declared martial law, and on 1 March Hitler ordered the expansion of the Auschwitz prison camp, so that it could hold 130,000 prisoners.
In Caithness, the bad weather continued. John O’Groats School recorded in its log book for 28 February, “Attendance for week 79.3%. Very bad weather and colds keep the attendance low. Work in the lower classes retarded. Gas masks are being carried daily and inspected weekly.”
Caithness continued to suffer from German attacks. Wick report and Control Centre filed the
following incident report on 24 February: “Further to my message regarding two bombs at Noss Head today, I have now ascertained that only one bomb was dropped. This struck the ground within the Air Ministry Wireless Station at Noss Head, skidded off and exploded 400 yards further south in open moorland outwith the Air Ministry grounds. The only damage is a broken fence and the only casualties several rabbits.”
A German raider attacked a Wick-registered fishing boat, the Solace, WK56, last week. The Receiver of Wrecks noted the incident in his log: “Whilst fishing 11 miles E. by S. of Wick on 22/2/41 vessel machine-gunned by German aircraft, which had been attacking a convoy 3 miles N.N.W. of above position. Bullets entered wheel house & engine room, no damage or injury sustained by vessel or crew.”
The John O’Groat Journal reported the incident this week, adding that three of the crew were on deck when the 
fighter attacked: “One of the men dived into the hold; the other two dropped flat on the deck. Most of the machine-gun bullets smashed into the engine-room and the wheelhouse, where the engineer and skipper had sought what shelter they could.” The plane went on to attack two lighthouses in the Pentland Firth and in one of them the keeper’s children had a narrow escape: “tracer bullets flew into the ground near them and they ran for shelter into an old quarry.” Fortunately no one was seriously injured.
In Wick, a wholesale beer dealer was convicted of shebeening, or operating an unlicensed 
drinking establishment at his premises in Union Street. He was caught when he sold two military policemen an impressive 15 bottles of beer between them (only four of which were used in evidence). The policemen testified that, “Between 30 and 40 people – soldiers, sailors and civilians – were in the store … standing about drinking from bottles.” Although the accused denied the charges and insisted that he had never seen the two policemen before, he was found guilty by the magistrates and fined £50.
Finally, throughout the last year the people of Caithness had subscribed to a fund to raise enough money to pay for a Spitfire fighter plane. The total had been reached last October (see Week 61); now the John O’Groat Journal printed a picture of the actual plane that the people of Caithness had bought, with “Caithness” inscribed just below the cockpit.
