Wings Over Wick
1939 - 1945
Civilians

Mr James Bremner, Wick
I worked with P A Sutherland in the Breadalbane Bakery in 1939-40.  I was the message boy and the order for bread for the airport would be roughly 60 dozen rolls daily. One hundred dozen pies to the NAAFI and Church of Scotland canteen was common. J T Sinclair the butcher would be supplying sausages by the hundredweight and not by the pound. I have seen 8 to l0 butchers in his back shop making mince and sausages for the RAF Station.

The first aircraft to come to Wick after war was declared, shortly after September 1939, were a squadron of Fleet Air Arm (Royal Navy) Skua Fighter Bombers, which flew off an aircraft carrier not far from our town. They were known as Blackburn Skuas. One crashed near the monument along Wick River beside Fairy Hill. I think both crewmen were killed. I remember visiting the site on a Sunday and was surprised to see the aircraft mostly intact as it did not explode and catch fire, as 90% of crashed aircraft do.

I recall seeing a German reconnaissance plane being shot down just East of Proudfoot. The aircraft crossed the aerodrome from west to east and as it passed over Proudfoot was attacked by at least six Hurricanes. Two of the crew who were picked up by the Air Sea Rescue unit were found to be dead.