Wings Over Wick
1939 - 1945
Civilians

Mr David Miller, Upper Ackergill Farm, Nr Wick
Mr David Miller was a young boy at Upper Ackergill farm during the war. The RAF took over 100  acres of his father's farm. He remembers Hudson aircraft of 269 squadron stanced close to the farmhouse and the ground crew were billeted in huts nearby. He remembers a Hudson of the squadron crashing on take off.

"A Hudson took off one Friday morning and it never left the runway. The plane went through four dykes and crossed two roads and when it crossed the fourth dyke, it fell in a dip in a field about six feet. The crew fell out as the undercarriage was torn off because of this fall.  Four of them ran down the way and one ran up and he got stuck in barbed wire but eventually he got free. Father ran out with a lantern. They came to him and he took them in the house. I remember coming downstairs and having a teet around the door. One of them had burnt hands and face. The ambulance came and took them away.

One of the pilots out here had an old car - a big Morris. He put his car down to the farm because the ground crew were running about in it when he was away flying so he didn't want that. He left it at the farm. I think about a week or so after that he went off in the plane and it didn't come back. The boys never said a plane was lost, or didn't come back. They always said one of our kites hasn't come back or is lost. I remember my father giving the car to the ground crew here and they used to run about and come down here every morning. My mother used to give them freshly baked pancakes and milk. They fitted 10 on the inside of the car and 2 sitting on the outside of the car. I remember they used to have some great times taking the girls back and fore to the Breadalbane cinema in the car. At that time Wick was dry and the boys used to take runnies up to Lybster and Halkirk and I remember one time they went to Thurso. There must have been a hotel or a pub where they were and the boys got drunk and the police chased them. Instead of coming back to the airport they turned down the drive going to Ackergill Castle and the Seaforths were stationed there with a guard on the bottom of the road. They let the boys with their car in. The police were stopped and turned back!

There was an Anderson air shelter just outside. I used to stand on that and wave to all the planes going past. I remember the first four-engined bomber that came to Wick. He landed over the house coming from the north and when he went over the house it was all this chocolate sweetie papers that came fluttering down. I mind I got a two bob bit in it. They had thrown it out the window when they were passing over. I remember the NAAFI van. It used to come round every Wednesday and what they had was this "Five Boys" chocolate, Mars Bars and a fairly big Swiss roll. They also had fags and tobacco. At that particular time the things were rationed but we had as much chocolate as we liked".