New book on fake WW2 airfield at Sarclet that fooled Nazi bombers – ‘There’s over 50 unexploded bombs still there’
A Caithness man has authored a new book on a clever ruse to fool German aircrews into bombing a decoy airfield at Sarclet during WWII instead of operational sites at Wick, Skitten and Castletown.
Rob More’s book, The Dummy Drome, is just out from Dunbeath company Whittles Publishing and tells the intriguing story of a World War Two airfield that wasn’t there.
Caithness was the scene of great activity during WWII, with German bombers heading from Norway to attack British airfields and the prospect of a Nazi invasion at Sinclair’s Bay a distinct possibility. An ingenious plan was put in place to create dummy airfields replete with fake aircraft that would look like the real thing from up high.
The 89-year-old author has lived around Sarclet all his life and can even recall German aircraft dropping bombs in the area, thinking they were attacking a real airfield instead of a remarkable deception.
“There are over 50 unexploded bombs still there,” said Rob.
“The site was declared safe by the MOD about 20 years ago, but there are bombs away down around 35 feet in the moss. Mind you, there haven’t been any sheep blown up!”
Following National Service with the Seaforth Highlanders and a career in construction, Rob has known of the decoy aerodrome all his life, since the site is on his family farm.
He says he got the idea for writing the book after being interviewed by the BBC for a TV series called Scotland from the Sky. “About 10 years ago, I was approached by the BBC to do a documentary about the dummy drome.
“They were about two days up here, and all that was on the television programme in the end was about three minutes. Well, I gave them a lot of information on it, and a lot of it wasn’t used, so I decided to put it in a book.”
Rob has first-hand knowledge of RAF Wick's decoy airfield at Sarclet, near Thrumster, from his memories as a child and has used this, together with other witness testimony, to create a fascinating story that will appeal to those with an interest in WWII military and local history.
“There were two British fighters and a bomber that landed there by mistake. We used to sit and watch the dogfights in the skies with the fighters after the bombers. They [the Germans] were coming from Norway.
“A relation of mine, Donald More, they called him ‘Slack’, lived just a wee bit from the dummy drome, maybe a couple of hundred yards. Anyway, the police came to put him out and said there was a house in Wick for him. He said, ‘Hitler’s no putting me out my home’ and he wouldn’t move.”
The featureless landscape at Sarclet was grazed by sheep, finding what sustenance they could, and there were no people or structures in sight. Even the 'solid ground' was only an illusion: a wide expanse of heather covered a great depth of peat bog that couldn't be ploughed for fear that machinery and animals would sink down in it.
This deception was exactly what was needed, an illusion dreamed up by military strategists and cinema-set designers in faraway offices.
For a brief period, the decoy airstrip was busy, active and vital, full of people and buildings with three broad and very obvious tracks with lights and noise. It was very much on the map, specifically designed to draw attention to itself.
The Air Ministry cartographers, who made it look larger than it really was, transposed the design of a real aerodrome onto a blank area on the map of Caithness. The planners added standard building designs in the right places. Huge quantities of raw materials were brought to the site, and construction workers created ‘runways’ that a plane could not land on.
Artists and craftsmen made planes that couldn't fly and even painted them onto canvas. Men and women from all over the country came here to work at a place that was not a working airfield, although their very presence as they moved about was an essential part of its apparent function.
The Dummy Drome tells the story of how it became a part of the lives of the people who built it, worked there or lived nearby. These hitherto untold stories reveal the experiences and recollections of the ordinary people who knew it and who were sworn to secrecy. This was only one of over 200 similar decoy sites, and it is possible to piece together what's left of it on the ground some 80 years later, since it is clearly visible from the air.
Rob says that he received funding to create the book from Tannach and District Wind Farm Trust, and amongst the many acknowledgements, he thanked Valerie Barker for helping with the manuscript and local photographers Angus Mackay and Ken Crossan.
All profits will be donated between the RNLI and Cancer Research.
For more info on where to purchase the book, contact Whittles Publishing at: www.whittlespublishing.com/
ISBN 978-184995-600-0 234 × 156mm 104pp; illustrated with 4 maps; c.60 colour and black and white photographs; softback; and priced £12.99.
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