On 4 March British commandos carried out a successful raid on oil facilities in Norway, burning fuel, capturing 200 German prisoners and destroying several ships. Meanwhile, oblivious of the build-up of Rommel’s forces in Libya, British troops were being redeployed from there to Greece, with the first landing taking place on 7 March. On Saturday 8 March, London was bombed again, and Buckingham Palace was hit. Finally, on 9 March, the Italian spring offensive in Albania began.
In Caithness, German raiders still flew overhead and caused considerable disruption even when no bombs were dropped. On 3 March Pulteneytown Academy School in Wick laconically recorded in its log book that a whole morning was lost: “School evacuated at 10.00am – “Alert” sounded. Re-assembled at 2pm.”
Education continued to be disrupted by the war in other ways. On the same day the county’s Director of Education wrote that “arrangements have now been made for the occupation of the West School, Thurso, by the troops as from to-day.”
It was very wet in Stemster this week, perhaps as the snow from the recent storms would now be melted. The log book for Stemster School notes on 7 March that, “Work in the garden owing to muddy condition and sodden ground – impossible”. The Head Teacher was clearly not having a good day, for he or she goes on crossly: “The Home Guard meets every Thursday night in the school. A good deal of damage done by a concert party in dragging a huge piano & platform. Some of the plaster broken in the lobbies in the process.” (As the Director of Education was also in charge of the Home Guard it would be interesting to know if a complaint was ever lodged?)
Finally this week, despite the mud and rain and the ever-present risk of more snow to come, the John O’Groat Journal reported an early sign of spring: “EARLY LAMBING. – During February and the early days of March quite a number of lambs have been dropped in the John O’Groats district. Although isolated cases of early lambing are not uncommon, thisis the first occasion they have appeared in such numbers so early in the season.”
