New book from Dunbeath publisher highlights Caithness' role in the Cold War

A new book from Dunbeath-based company Whittles includes details on the American naval base in Caithness and its significance during the Cold War.

Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards: America’s Scottish Bastion in the Cold War is written David Mackay, a former Cold War special forces officer, who brings his personal expertise into play, examining this intriguing story by reaching out to more than 100 veterans and expert witnesses.

The American military presence in Scotland during the Cold War was greater than in either of the World Wars, bringing with it the largest peace-time number of foreign military personnel in Scotland’s history. This military power was delivered by individuals – the forgotten heroes. They worked to high standards of professionalism and most had no true concept of the danger they faced from the Soviet threat. This reality was only ever confronted during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.

It is clear that Scotland would have been a Soviet target of necessity once the American bases were established. Scotland was of great importance to the United States during the Cold War and this research shows that, for more than 30 years, Scotland was the capstone in Washington’s early Cold War strategy.

There were six significant bases, the most important being America’s only nuclear-armed submarine squadron in the Holy Loch. The author details the operations which were carried out by the large radio spy stations (SIGINT) at Kirknewton, Thurso and Edzell.

The detailed chapter on Thurso's role has the voices of many who worked at the base in the far north and made long-lasting friendships with locals. There were two sites which were part of the Thurso operations and these were based at Forss and West Murkle.

"Thurso’s mysteries were hidden on the north coast of Scotland in a remote area which was wild and empty, and stunningly beautiful," begins the chapter.

It continues: "The people of Scotland and even some of the base personnel were unaware of its pivotal and potentially chilling role during the Cold War. The grim reality was that it was the U.S. Naval Communications Station Thurso that would relay the President’s command to fire the starting gun for the Third World War. The base had two key roles: it tracked Soviet submarines in the Northern Seas, and it was the US Government’s principal European transmitter to its submarines.

"It was Thurso’s personnel who made this scenario possible. The base was a vital stage in the process of creating nuclear devastation for Russian cities – and for everyone at Thurso, as well."

There are incredible anecdotes about the Forss radio mast that was known as "the Big Stick" and the nerve-wracking experience of those who had to climb it and others who tried it as a challenge.

There are also some light-hearted moments in the book and one concerns security in which sheep and drunk locals would sometimes trespass onto the base. "The aim of this was to be able to claim that they had breached the base security. Others would claim that they could have been terrorists, thus able to destroy the antenna fields. This might have seemed far-fetched, but it was accurate."

An interesting theme throughout the book is the espionage effort mounted by the KGB against these bases. The author has interviewed senior intelligence officers and their input is revealing.

Overall, this book provides an important addition to the conventional US/UK Cold War narrative. There are many references to Caithness in the book along with other sites in Scotland that were of strategic importance during the Cold War.

Bubbleheads, SEALs and Wizards is available from Whittles at: www.whittlespublishing.com/Bubbleheads_SEALs_and_Wizards

The 224pp print edition is priced £18.99 and is illustrated with 45 colour and 30 b/w illustrations.

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