The months of the D-Day training exercises were a period of turmoil for many on the Moray coast.
Asked to leave homes at short notice, there began a small-scale clearance from the coast as people gathered possessions from homes some did not return to.
Findhorn Heritage Centre has made additions to its collections to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day – and the part played by local people.
New displays also offer an insight into the testing of the Valentine tanks that proved so un-seaworthy.
Findhorn Heritage Chairman Tim Negus said: “We have also added some detail about the evacuation of inhabitants from the coastal strip between Kintessack and Maviston.
“In particular, we have excerpts from an account by Miss Rita Taylor, former head of Applegrove Primary School, whose family farmed at Kintessack.”
Her notes offer a vivid picture of the upheaval.
She recalled: “A large number of families lived in the area and all had to find accommodation for the time they were to be away.
“No help was given, but everybody was to be housed before three weeks were up.
“There was no DHSS then and no bleating that the government should help.”
According to reports of the day, as many as 40 farms were affected and more than 11,000 animals displaced.
During a three-day sale at Forres, 1,000 cattle and 8,000 sheep from the affected properties are said to have passed through the mart ring.
Many of the evacuees were elderly and for them it was the cause of significant hardship but the support of neighbours is said to have been a boon to all involved.
Those who found shelter nearby for the duration of the exercises, like Miss Taylor and her family, were auditory witnesses to the exercises.
She noted: “Some days the whole area seemed to be on fire and the noise was frightening.
“We were more fortunate than the many people on the continent who didn’t know if they would ever see their homes and country back to normal.
“We were confident we would be back in our home.”
Once the soldiers were gone, letters were sent out informing the displaced families they could return home “at their own risk”.
Miss Taylor noted that a fortnight after her family’s return to Kintessack, an unexploded land mine had been found in a field where cattle had been grazing for a fortnight.