Bike Squadron

Bike Squadron

A most northerly War

Far in the north of Scotland is Dunnet Head, the most northerly point of the UK mainland. At

58° 40′ 21″ N latitude and 3° 22′ 31″ W longtitude it is further north than Moscow and parts of Alaska, and 1o latitudefurther north than the most northerly point of the Danish mainland, Skagen.

Ordnance Survey Land Ranger map LR12 OS Grid Ref: ND204766. Located at the western end of the tempestuous Pentland Firth, overlooking the Orkney Islands, with a watching brief over the entrance to the natural anchorage of Scapa Flow, scene of the scuttling of the four battleships and four light cruisers of the German fleet in WWI, the bases at Dunnet Head and Burifa Hill played an important part in coastal defences during WWII.

Burifa Hill is a mile south west of Dunnet Head with magnificent views over Dunnet Bay to Thurso. There are remains of the installation, as mentioned below, but is less visited than Dunnet Head due to its relative inaccessibility. That is to say, the vehicular access is by 4x4 only.

The Dunnet and Castletown areas became home for thousands of servicemen and women during WWII. The "Gee" station at Burifa Hill and the radar station at Dunnet Head played important roles in the UK´s coastal defences, and at Castletown, one of four WWII airfields in Caithness (the others being at Dounreay, Skitten and Wick) the extensive site brought many changes to the area. For the servicemen and women, one cannot imagine arriving in this remote spot after travelling long hours from crowded southern England. The wild scenery, the wide open spaces, the small settlements – all would have been a surprise to the troops – as they are to any newcomer to the area.

"Gee" was a radio navigational aid developed to help Bomber Command navigate and find its targets over a blacked-out Germany at night. There were several ground stations linked together which, by the transmission of carefully timed radio signals, produced a grid (hence the name: Gee for grid) of signals from which a navigator could determine the aircraft's position. The main pulse would be sent by a Master Station and this would trigger transmissions from Slave Stations and the resulting grid made it possible to navigate very accurately to a range of about 300 miles.

A number of Gee chains were built in Britain, to cover various areas of Occupied Europe. One of these was the Northern Gee Chain of which Burifa Hill was the Master. There were Slave Stations at Scousburgh in Shetland, Windyhead Hill near Fraserburgh and Sango near Cape Wrath. There was also a Monitor Station and this too was at Burifa Hill. The Northern Gee Chain became operational in late 1941 and remained in use until March 1946.

The Northern Gee Chain was used to great effect in hundreds of operations throughout its operational lifetime. These included assisting with minelaying operations carried out in the North Sea and Baltic Sea during September and October 1943. One particular operation which is mentioned in the records of Burifa Hill is of interest. The Chain gave a "very exceptional performance" on the night of 3/4 September 1943 when its signals were used by a Bomber Command force of 316 Avro Lancasters in a raid on Berlin at a distance of 620 miles from Burifa Hill. This is a quite remarkable distance, being more than double the normal range for Gee reception. Source: Ian Brown, Historical Radar Archive.

The operations centres at Dunnet Head and Burifa Hill were originally constructed and commissioned by the Royal Navy. In 1939 a scheme was devised by Vice-Admiral Sir James Somerville, Director of Anti-Submarine Weapons and Devices, to set up radar stations to cover the Fair Isle Channel against U-boats passing through the channel to or from the Atlantic. In the spring of 1940 this scheme was extended to the north of Shetland and to the Pentland Firth. The six stations, known as Admiralty Experimental Stations, in this scheme were located at Sumburgh, Fair Isle (two stations), Saxavord, South Ronaldsay and Dunnet Head and were operated by the Royal Navy.

Dunnet Head, Admiralty Experimental Station No. 6, was the last to be constructed, work beginning in the summer of 1940 on high ground just to the south of the lighthouse. Like the others, Dunnet Head was a Coast Defence U-boat (C.D.U.) station, the naval version of the R.A.F.'s Chain Home Low (C.H.L.) radar which formed part of the early warning network round the coasts of Britain. The C.D.U. radar was able to track shipping and surfaced submarines to a distance of a few miles and could also detect aircraft at ranges of 100 miles or more, depending on the height of the aircraft. When erected, the station at Dunnet Head consisted of two separate huts, one for the transmitter and one for the receiver, with the aerial arrays mounted on gantries which straddled each hut. The aerial arrays were of the ‘bedstead' type, so called because of their resemblance to mattresses. These aerial arrays were turned by hand, using upturned bicycle frames, with a chain running from the bike up through the roof to the aerial frame above. Following several months of construction work, A.E.S. 6 at Dunnet Head became operational in December 1940. The naval chapter in the story of Dunnet Head came to an end in October 1943 when the station was transferred to the Royal Air Force, being operated by them until the station closed down.

During its operational lifetime, Dunnet Head plotted a number of enemy aircraft in the Orkney area as well as those over South Shetland and the Fair Isle passage, the latter generally meteorological reconnaissance aircraft flying out into the North Atlantic. In addition, tracks of some 35,000 friendly aircraft were plotted by the station during the three years it was operated by the Royal Navy.

In the early years of WWII, Canadians overseas served in RAF squadrons and were catered for by British cooks. Number 6 RCAF Group, commonly known as the Canadian Bomber Command, was formed in England in December 1942. The catering function was performed by an RAF Catering Officer and this caused problems for the largely Canadian personnel. Traditionally the British had four meals a day, namely breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. Tea was in fact a meal served about 1700 and supper was more like a snack served around 2000. The Canadians were not in favour of this system and, furthermore, preferred different foodstuffs than those favoured by the British. A study was undertaken by the Canadian Catering Officer with a view to setting up a Canadian catering system for the Canadian personnel. In 1944, 12 female Catering Officers were sent to England to manage the four main bases and 12 smaller stations of 6 RCAF Bomber Group and to provide menus more in line with the Canadian palate. Given severe problems with ration availability including coffee meat and fresh milk, they accomplished all and more than would have been expected. After WWII, in Jan, 1949, the ration scale was revised to allow greater flexibility in menu planning.

At RAF Castletown, Dunnet Head and Burifa Hill, as undoubtedly in other areas, service rations were supplemented by local fresh produce, and a barter system with the local farmers was prevalent in the area. RAF Castletown even had its own station "garden" which boasted 800 lettuces, and some 6000 onions and leeks. The Officers' Mess also kept lobster pots in the bay. Source: http://www.forces.gc.ca

On "liberty weekends" the troops were taken into Thurso where they dined at the Royal Hotel, and the officers billeted at the Dunnet Hotel seemed to dine well, especially at Xmas when it was reported that at RAF Burifa Hill, the Xmas menu of 1944 boasted "Roast turkey á la Poulter, stuffing au Royal Hotel, Peat Bog pork, peas, sprouts, pickles, spuds, Xmas pud, mince pies and coffee Table decorations by Trees Ltd. , branches everywhere except Caithness."

The social life improved as the War progressed – there were cinemas at the base of Burifa Hill and at RAF Castletown, each station had its own concert party and put on productions, and there were sports days and outings to keep up morale.

The bases were decommissioned immediately after the War with local firms being involved in dismantling some of the buildings. The most prominent one which remains is the operations block on Dunnet Head itself – poised on the extreme summit of the Head, it is a point of interest of visitors who, according to a recent survey carried out by the Dunnet Head Educational Trust, would like to see interpretation of the site, and information about the history of the installation.

About the Author

Tina Irving has been writing articles for many years for the Spanish and UK press. Her work has been published in The Lady, Country Walking, Sentinella, Euro Weekly, the Grapevine, Market Place and the John o Groats Journal to mention just a few.