A look at the coastline of Germany shows how little access Hitler's navy had to the Atlantic. This was one of the main reasons he invaded Norway. From their coast he could attack cargo ships bringing food supplies to Britain. One of his famous destroyers, the Tirpitz, avoided bombing reprisals for attacking the food convoys by hiding in one of the deep Norwegian fiords there for more than a year. Listening to the wireless in my story, Rory and his friends hear about this.

Of course, the cargoes being brought to Britain were things like rice and sugar which we can't grow here. Lord Wooton, a clever man,sorted out how much a working man could live on and decided that everyone would have that equal share of what food was available. All of us had a ration book

A look at the map again will show that towns in the North of Scotland are nearer to Norway than to London.

Before the war, Norwegian fishermen often used the Shetland fish market for their catch. When the Germans invaded many left Norway for Scottish ports while still fishing in the North Sea.

Hearing this, our Special Operations Executive suggested they might secretly carry supplies of arms to the Norwegian Resistance. Many agreed and also brought back refugees from the Nazi regime.

Two of these boats sailed from our harbour it was however all done in secret and it was not until after the war that we discovered they'd had this side line.

Other secrets concerned actual spies. For some reason, the remote Moray coastline was chosen as a good place to drop off spies.

Three that were dropped by a flying boat at Port Soy were captured immediately, their English was so poor. Not long after, two more landed. They however went directly to the Police Station.

"We are Norwegian" they said "We want to work for you, not the Germans, so we're offering to be double agents."

When I talk to schools, they love the fact that these two chose the cover names, Mut and Jeff.

Later they were able to send messages to misdirect Hitler into thinking military manoeuvres on our village beaches were preparation for D-Day type landings on Norway.

Not all the secret goings on in our area were related to the Germans. Some were to do with the Black Market. The idea of rationing was that everyone could have enough to eat even if some people had money to buy more than their share.

Rather like smugglers in the olden days Gangs would come around offering items provided one could pay for them. Tins of Butter stolen from the RAF catering store appear in the story. Everyone knew they were illegal as the tins were marked with the Government's Arrowhead mark.

 

Anyone who writes needs to read to make sure they have all their facts right and check all around their subject.