Launch event at former Wick RAF base will highlight vital Caithness role in World War II
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A World War II heritage trail highlighting how Caithness played its part in the fight against Nazi Germany will be officially launched at an event in Wick next weekend.
Forty-six information boards have been installed around the town and in the Sinclair’s Bay area, explaining the county’s vital role in guarding against the threat of invasion from across the North Sea.
The illustrated signs mark the completion of phase one of the Caithness At War project and they will all be in place in time for the launch event at Wick John O’Groats Airport on the afternoon of Saturday, April 20. The airport served as an RAF base during the war.
Those attending will also hear about the plans for phase two of the project, centred on the creation of a Caithness Allied Air Forces Memorial at the airport entrance along with a life-size replica of a Spitfire. The memorial will be a place of remembrance for 544 aircrew and service personnel who lost their lives operating from the county’s three RAF stations at Wick, Castletown and Skitten.
Alistair Jack, Caithness Voluntary Group’s senior development officer, is supporting Sinclair’s Bay Trust and Wick Development Trust on the project. It is hoped that eventually the trail will be extended across the rest of the county, with help from community groups in other areas.
An app will generate an augmented reality (AR) experience at eight of the Sinclair’s Bay sites. The app is in final stages of testing, while a website will be available soon at www.caithnessatwar.com
Thirty detailed information boards are being erected in and around Wick, with a further 16 in the Sinclair’s Bay area. Each panel describes a different aspect of the war from a Caithness perspective and is illustrated with archive photos.
“Some have got QR codes on them which lead to the website where there’s additional information and videos,” Mr Jack explained.
“The Wick ones are all wheelchair-accessible. The Sinclair’s Bay ones are not all wheelchair-accessible, so if folk can’t get there, or don’t live in the area, they can still get the information. All the information from each panel will be on the website.”
Mr Jack said “a huge amount” of detective work had gone into preparing the boards. Points of interest include anti-tank obstacles, pillboxes, beach defences, air raids, a minefield and a secret “Y” service wireless station, as well as important missions.
He added: “To be honest, we could probably have put another 20 panels around the town. There’s still more stories there yet, but you have to draw a line somewhere.”
The launch event will begin at 2pm on April 20 with introductory speeches by the chairperson of Sinclair’s Bay Trust, Maysie Calder, and her counterpart from Wick Development Trust, Jonathan Miller.
Lord Thurso, the Lord-Lieutenant of Caithness, will then give a speech which will be followed by a ribbon-cutting, a wreath-laying and a one-minute silence.
At around 3pm a painting of Spitfire AA810 will be unveiled in the airport terminal. Spitfire AA810 flew out of RAF Wick but was shot down over Norway in May 1942 while on a reconnaissance mission to find the sister ship to the Bismarck, the Tirpitz.
The pilot, Flight Lieutenant Alastair Gunn (known as Sandy), bailed out but was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III prisoner-of-war camp, the scene of the famous Great Escape.
Gunn was involved in the digging of the Tom, Dick and Harry tunnels and was one of the 76 prisoners who escaped on the evening of March 24, 1944.
Gunn was recaptured a few days later, and on April 6, 1944, was executed by the Gestapo along with six of his fellow officers. Fifty officers in total were executed on the orders of Adolf Hitler.
Air Cadets will attend the event and there will be representatives of the three primary schools in Wick and Sinclair’s Bay – Newton Park, Noss and Keiss.
“We want people to come – we want as many people there as possible,” Mr Jack said.
“We’ll have flags to hand out to kids as well. I just hope the weather is okay.”
He added: “I can’t emphasise enough how important Caithness was. Most other counties didn’t have a look-in compared with Caithness. What was happening here was highly top secret.
“I guarantee the majority of people, if you ask them what happened in Caithness during the war, will say Bank Row was bombed. But there was so much more.”
It is hoped the heritage trail will raise awareness among local people and visitors of what was happening in Caithness at a time when there were fears of an invasion of Britain following the German occupation of Norway from 1940.
The memorial wall planned for phase two of the project will be made from nine Caithness flagstone panels listing the names of all those who lost their lives.
Mr Jack has explained previously that Sinclair’s Bay was seen as offering “almost perfect conditions” for an enemy invasion. He said: “Had the Germans managed to create a bridgehead in Caithness, it would have been disastrous for Britain and could have cost us the war.
“Had they managed to create a base here they would have been able to restrict the movements of the Royal Navy from Scapa Flow, and had better access to the North Atlantic to attack convoys coming from America, by basing U-boats at Wick.
"Additionally, German bombers based in Caithness would have been able to mount air raids on the south of Scotland and north of England with ease, basically catching Britain in a pincer movement when combined with air raids from occupied France.”
