Arrows and Targets on & around Tarbat Peninsula WW2

There are 3 arrows and Targets, 2 of the targets were at sea and one on land

They are Rockfield, Portmahomack and Wilkhaven. Only Wilkhaven was the target on land the rest of the targets were off the coast. Peter Kirk has found out that from aerial photos none of these targets existed in September 1944 so they were probably built early 1945 as the war in Europe was drawing to a close this was for the war in the Far east against the Japanese and built for attacking shipping day and night that is why the targets were lit up at night.

They were probably all naval built only the Portmahomack arrow was built of wood the other 2 of concrete.

Arrow above Rockfield made of concrete

I discovered this arrow from aerial photo of 1945 and we were planting potatoes in field next to it on Rockfield Farm, so using front loader on tractor I scraped weeds etc of it, then measure it which you will see in the photos.

This is what I thought arrow was for till I found out otherwise above Rockfield is a white arrow it points due east and was lit up at night for bombers to get their bearings of after taking off from RAF Tain. The arrow is still there and I have taken photos of it this year as our potato field is in the next field.

 The difference between magnetic north and true or grid north during the war 2 was 13 degrees today it is only 3 degrees, the reason for this getting less is the volcanic activity in the north Atlantic ridge below the Atlantic is spewing out volcanic and throwing magnetic ions to one side of ridge therefore moving magnetic north closer to true north.

 I found that they must have laid then lifted lights every night and stored then inside generator/lookout hut as there is no cable between arrow head and generator hut to keep prying eyes away and also to allowing horse and carts to cross it during the day.

Drawings I did of arrow

The real reason for the arrow By peter Kirk

Arrow above Rockfield info from Peter Kirk who is an expert in old war time information and has been of great help to me in my research. (He was introduced to me by email from another expert Martin Briscoe of Fort William.)

I have attached my interpretation of the target area based on similar sites.

The quadrant observation posts at Bindal and Rockfield which Peter Kirk told me about which were on 1000 yard bearings to target in Moray Firth of Rockfield that was anchored to sea bed.)

 The target would originally have been a 16ft moored raft but if rocket firing was carried out these may have been a circle of 6ft cork based buoys. I doubt the ships would have been using the range itself but they would have been use in two way training. The ships would have played target for the pilots and the aircraft would have played target for the ships anti-aircraft gunners. At night flares would still be used for realism. When the weather was fine that areas must have been very busy!

The Rockfield arrow was lit for night practice only. The Fleet Air Arm tended to have a lot of attacks carried out at night, particularly against U-boats on the surface and later whilst using their snorkel (breathing tube). Aircraft fitted with ASV radar (for detecting surface craft and periscopes) could locate targets in the dark and would back light them with flares whilst others attacked with bombs or depth charges. It would be interesting to find out if the flares were used when practicing at Rockfield to get the added realism.

 

The use of these large arrows for general direction indication is a widely held belief and I suspect it is because little or nothing was known about their true purpose, especially as a lot of people have no idea bombing ranges ever existed. Thanks to your information I now have the locations for the Rockfield quadrant shelters and therefore a rough idea of the target location. I have attached an OS map with the layout drawn in based on a standard danger radius of 1,000 yds. The target would have been a 32ft triangular raft moored into position using heavy concrete sinkers.

I sent him a photo of Lockout at Bindal that looks south. That confirms it is indeed a quadrant shelter and the remains of the big bay window show this. It is also the same design as the ones for the Target Field. This area it seems to be the only place that the Fleet Air Arm built this type of quadrant shelter. I suspect the concrete base next to the Rockfield arrow is of similar dimensions. The RAF used a similar design by building a bay window on the end of a one third length Nissan hut. Many thanks for photographing this as it is a "new" find as far as quadrant shelters go and gives me hope that there are more to find.

The brick are not exactly local but there are some quadrants built in brick where no brick is normally used so transport didn't seem to be a problem.

 

Stan Mitchell from Rockfield remembers when arrow was lit up at night the noise of all the shooting and bombing by planes on target.

 I noticed bricks are Methil bricks that must be from Fife.

Quadrant shelter lookout on Bindal Farm bricks

Quadrant shelter lookout on Bindal Farm

Quadrant shelter lookout on Bindal Farm

Quadrant shelter lookout on Bindal Farm

Below is a Map sent by Peter Kirk of his workings on where target would be in Moray Firth off Rockfield showing Bindal Quadrant shelter lookout and Rockfield Quadrant shelter Lookout with generator shed next to Arrow.

Rockfield Quadrant shelter look out and generator shed next to Arrow.

The other Quadrant Shelter lookout is in trees on headland at Bindal which you can see in photo on right hand side at top of cliff beyond Ballone Castle.

This photo shows size of arrow against tractor with generator shed and lookout in background

Arrow points due east to target 1000 yards off shore

Portmahomack Arrow

Portmahomack arrow was just east of Portmahomack, was made of wood and lit up at night as the build up for training intensified as the war in Europe was nearly finished and they needed another place for as a target. John MacKay remembers them firing and bombing it. Nothing remains of the arrow as I was told it was made of wood with Lights on it and there is only the concrete base of the hut left. Near the sewage works.

As there was not much time a smaller building was built which is oblong but not as big as the quadrant lookouts at Rockfield, Bindal and Wilkhaven, so did not need a toilet or beds as Portmahomack was only a few minutes’ walk away.

I suspect this building may have had a wooden structure built above as there is no bricks showing and all they needed was a building to keep them dry and to spot hits on target.

You can see the coastguard hut on fence line at bottom of photo on Knock Shortie.

Below you can see the target out at sea

Wilkhaven Arrow and Target

Wilkhaven the target was on land, but nothing remains of the target. But the Lookout posts etc are still there and a small concrete arrow pointing North.

There were the targets on the Morrich and they would have been RAF as it was an RAF base at Tain. The whole area was a training area all over the Dornoch and Moray Firths. Blackburn Botha Planes flew out of RAF Evanton and the upper gunner fired at Drones over the Dornoch Firth.

Map below shows training areas in 1945