大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Claire White of 大象传媒 Scotland on behalf of Caroline MacLeod and has been added to the site with her permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

I remember we had lots of camps in Nethy Bridge. We had the Canadian timber corps there and the Norwegians when they were learning to ski.

I lived near the Cairngorms and planes would crash into the hills and we'd find bits of planes and bodies everywhere. We were out playing in fields and woods one day and we found a big map. It was thought to be of military significance so we had to hand it in.

My father was in the Home Guard and the Canadian soldiers used to come up the hills and shoot rabbits. We always got enough to eat, including fresh eggs, because we had hens on the farm. That was something in those days!

When my father was killed in an accident on the farm during the war we had a terrific snow storm and it was the Canadian soldiers that opened up the farm road for the funeral to take place. Canadian soldiers were always a good source of cakes, sweets, etc. too.

We also had lots of Indian soldiers on horseback in Nethy Bridge. They were in training and travelled in single file on the road. Sometimes we were frightened when passing them at night time. They were very quiet men.

One day a German plane flew over us and it was so low that we could see the swastika on its side. Luckily, we were never bombed, but Cromarty suffered some severe blows. You could see the beam of searchlights in the sky.

At the end of the war, when peace was declared, there was a huge party in the field next door to us. We celebrated with games; tug o' war, races, etc. and a barn dance at night. We were allowed to go to the dance aged 12 which was a real treat.

The war was a very exciting time in some ways, but as a child you didn't understand the severity of what was going on.

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