The War Years

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Sneck really was a dangerous place to be

[Charles Bannerman]

Sneck really was a dangerous place to be

 

And that's even before you consider the Americans who were here to lay the mines!

[+bughtmaster]

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

[Charles Bannerman]

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

BM... I think that was a big part of the problem. Fights between the locals and the Yanks apparently did break out. Not sure if the Americans risked going down the Ferry though!

[+bughtmaster]

Discretion / valour and all that !      

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

BM... I think that was a big part of the problem. Fights between the locals and the Yanks apparently did break out. Not sure if the Americans risked going down the Ferry though!

[Charles Bannerman]

Discretion / valour and all that !      

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

BM... I think that was a big part of the problem. Fights between the locals and the Yanks apparently did break out. Not sure if the Americans risked going down the Ferry though!

 

I think it may have been on a thread here that there was once a photo of the Merkinch Platoon of the Home Guard in Portland Place.

Major error Mr Churchill! It was a thoroughly bad decision to keep the Merkinch Home Guard back in Inverness whereas if they had been dropped on to Sword Beach first on D Day they would have been in Berlin by Halloween, long before the Russians and with divisions of Waffen SS put to flight in the process!

[+bughtmaster]

Discretion / valour and all that !      

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

BM... I think that was a big part of the problem. Fights between the locals and the Yanks apparently did break out. Not sure if the Americans risked going down the Ferry though!

 

I think it may have been on a thread here that there was once a photo of the Merkinch Platoon of the Home Guard in Portland Place.

Major error Mr Churchill! It was a thoroughly bad decision to keep the Merkinch Home Guard back in Inverness whereas if they had been dropped on to Sword Beach first on D Day they would have been in Berlin by Halloween, long before the Russians and with divisions of Waffen SS put to flight in the process!

I can imagine that by the time they marched through the vineyards and wineries of the Rhone /Rhine valleys they would have made a staggering influence on the war.

[Charles Bannerman]

Discretion / valour and all that !      

Bet that's not all they layed by all accounts......they certainly were a danger  

BM... I think that was a big part of the problem. Fights between the locals and the Yanks apparently did break out. Not sure if the Americans risked going down the Ferry though!

 

I think it may have been on a thread here that there was once a photo of the Merkinch Platoon of the Home Guard in Portland Place.

Major error Mr Churchill! It was a thoroughly bad decision to keep the Merkinch Home Guard back in Inverness whereas if they had been dropped on to Sword Beach first on D Day they would have been in Berlin by Halloween, long before the Russians and with divisions of Waffen SS put to flight in the process!

I can imagine that by the time they marched through the vineyards and wineries of the Rhone /Rhine valleys they would have made a staggering influence on the war.

On the other hand if the Merkinch platoon had simply been embarked on the Eilan Dubh and dropped off on the coast of France at the beginning of 1941, WW2 would have been over before the Americans could get in and set themselves up to exercise a position of world hegemony afterwards.

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[Scarlet Pimple]

Brilliant photo IHE.

The soldier on the extreme left is impressed by the support from the crowd. A year later he would not be smiling...i.e. if he had survived the carnage.....

My 3 uncles MacBean were all in the Camerons and the youngest was killed in in northern France at the age of 19. One other was wounded but never mentioned it back here at home and my other uncle was also badly wounded  and remained with a permanently injured hip for the rest of his life without a word escaping from his lips that I ever heard, either about the wounds or the war.

My father was also in the 1st World war...a machine gun sergeant at age 19..... but somehow survived. His buddy beside him got a bullet right through the forehead, from a sniper presumably. That's the only thing I ever heard him say about his years of experiences in the trenches .

Apart form his comments about the Home Guard night training crawling about in Tomnahurich cemetery which, for him, I think was a real challenge since he was much older and war experienced by then. 

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Getting ready for war

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Learning opportunity in Sneck 

[Charles Bannerman]

I fought the Battle of Loos the other morning after too hot a curry the night before

James Barron was the father of Eveline Barron who succeeded her uncle Evan Barron as editor of the Courier in the mid 60s. James Barron was with the 7th Camerons and was mortally wounded art Loos on Hill 70.

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It wasn't all about the trenches

[Charles Bannerman]

It wasn't all about the trenches

This was also a widespread practice in WW1.

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Official letter

[Charles Bannerman]

So the best way to stop the Hun making a Run is to make his Lederhosen liable to fall down

The date of the memo is 19.8.40. at the peak of the Battle of Britain so I wonder if "active land operations" was simply a euphemism for the Invasion which was expected at any time.

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And then send and keep them in the back of beyond !!

[Charles Bannerman]

The Italian Chapel in Orkney is a wonder to behold! It's made out of two Nissen huts and the internal artwork is amazing. I know there are a lot of jokes about the Italians surrendering such as "How do the Italians start a running race?"..... "On your marks, get set, here comes the 8th Army" but I think they were the guys that got it right. A lot of Italians simply saw reality, realised that Mussolini was a complete t****r, rejected what the Axis was doing and took the pragmatic step of chucking it in.

[IBM]

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[IBM]

A good one IHE.

[tm4tj]

And here is the very chapel.

 

 

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Built from Orkney Lego ?

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On the site of the present day Clach Club