'Their sacrifice should not be forgotten' – Wick Airport memorial to now include all aircrews operating from Caithness airfields during WWII
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A development trust is aiming to remember the sacrifice of all aircrew who flew from Wick and its satellite airport at Skitten and will now also commemorate the Castletown squadrons as well, it has just been announced.
At the outset of the war, RAF Wick was under the control of RAF Fighter Command but was manned by aircraft from the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm until these were replaced by RAF Hawker Hurricanes in February 1940. The airfield was handed over to RAF Coastal Command becoming a Sector Station in June 1940, and thousands of coastal command sorties were flown from RAF Wick between 1940 and 1945. It reverted back to a Fighter Command Station in July 1945 after the cessation of hostilities in Europe.
Nearby RAF Skitten changed hands on numerous occasions during the war, and was initially under the control of Fighter Command only to become a satellite of RAF Wick under the control of Coastal
Command. Skitten had its runways extended to allow it to be used as an auxiliary airfield for Bomber Command early in 1942, so both airfields saw aircraft and squadrons from all three RAF commands operating from them during the war.
Alistair Jack, Development Trust officer for Caithness Voluntary Group commented: “The memorial we plan to erect at the entrance to Wick John O’Groats airport was originally intended to just include the aircrews that were lost while operating from that airfield during the war. However, as Skitten was a satellite of Wick it made absolute sense to include those aircrews as well.
“The majority of losses were suffered by the squadrons from Wick, however RAF Skitten lost their fair share with at least 81 servicemen being killed in action, and their sacrifice should not be forgotten.
“We made an announcement on the Caithness At War Facebook page that this was our intention, but put it to the public whether the memorial should be for Caithness and not just for RAF Wick and Skitten. This would mean that the memorial would include the losses suffered from RAF Castletown as well – the consensus was that this should be the case."
From June 1940 when it opened, RAF Castletown was the main fighter base defending the North of Scotland and Scapa Flow. The Castletown squadrons operated Hawker Hurricanes or Supermarine
Spitfires to patrol the northern skies and intercept enemy aircraft. However, Castletown’s squadron strength was increased in June 1943 by an Air Sea Rescue (ASR) squadron from Coastal Command, and Castletown would have an ASR capability until November 1944 which was just a few months before its closure in 1945.
The Caithness At War team now has the "very long and difficult task" of trying to identify all the service personnel that were killed operating from the three airfields during the war.
Mr Jack added: “We now have the arduous task of searching through the records of the squadrons from Fighter Command, Coastal Command, Bomber Command and the Fleet Air Arm to try to identify all the service personnel that will be commemorated on the memorial. This might sound like an easy task but many of the records are incomplete and the difficult part is trying to place personnel at the airfields at the time of their death.
“It is so important that we do not miss out a single person, and to date, we have identified just under 470 names that will be placed on the memorial.
“We have also been contacted by individuals who have heard about what we are doing to enquire if we could do a memorial at other former RAF airfields in Scotland, but unfortunately this is outwith our remit. However, perhaps other groups near these airfields will be encouraged to do something similar once the Wick memorial has been erected.”
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