The Shetland Bus

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James W. Irvine (1988) The Waves Are Free: Shetland Norway Links, 1940 To 1945 (The Shetland Publishing Co) During the Second World War, the Shetland Bus played a crucial role during Germany’s occupation of Norway. Lunna House was the first headquarter for the Shetland Bus operations during World War II. Photo courtesy of Aldebaran/Wikimedia Commons. The smaller, more agile 50- to 70-foot fishing boats provided a fitting disguise. David Howarth, another British SOE officer who joined Mitchell in June 1941 and authored the book “The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure,” described their design.

The Shetland Bus Memorial is likely the centerpiece of this legacy, consisting of a small metal sculpture representing one of these fishing boats. Other features in the area include a concrete plaque, along with information boards on the windows of nearby buildings. The village of Scalloway is now the centre of memories of the operation. Scalloway Museum hosts a permanent exhibition. The memorial of the British-Norwegian Shetland Bus located in ScotlandThe charity recently opened a new museum which includes a section dedicated to Shetland Bus memorabilia. Our most recent acquisition is a four man rowing boat which was brought across on a restored Shetland Bus fishing boat from Norway. Stories told include a mission to sink the German battleship Tirpitz, the journey of a single survivor of a mission as he treks over the frozen Scandinavian ice and snow towards neutral Sweden, and descriptions of missions to drop off agents, weapons, and rescue partisans and those in danger of capture by the German secret police. In the early weeks of April 1940, the first combat air assault in history saw German paratroopers , or Fallschirmjägers , leap from Junkers Ju-52s onto Aalborg Airport in Denmark and the Sola Air Station in Norway. Nazi Germany launched Operation Weserübung , the first major invasion to strike from the air, land, and sea. The tactic was so effective that Norway surrendered within two months. Their leadership, along with leaders of other European nations, was forced into exile in Great Britain.

Malakoff & Moore’s Slip, Scalloway, Shetland. Built in World War II to service MTBs that went between Shetland and Norway, this slip was one of the links in the Shetland Bus. Now it is used for servicing fishing boats and salmon farm vessels. Photo courtesy of John Dally / Malakoff & Moore’s Slip, Scalloway, Shetland / CC BY-SA 2.0. A few years later, Howarth's book was used as the inspiration for the British-Norwegian film Shetlandsgjengen. Released in English as Suicide Mission, the film featured many real-life members of the Shetland gang playing themselves, including Leif Larsen.This is a part of the war I remember hearing nothing about. The work done in such harsh conditions. The danger from the elements as well as trying to avoid detection from the enemy. So many of their men lost at sea or killed or captured by the Germans. During the German occupation of Norway, from 1940 to 1945, every Norwegian knew that small boats were constantly sailing from the Shetland Isles to Norway to land weapons and supplies and to rescue refugees. The Norwegians who stayed in Norway and struggled there against the invaders were fortified by this knowledge, and gave the small boats the familiar name which is the title of this book: 'to take the Shetland bus' became a synonym in Norway for escape when danger was overwhelming. This record of the adventures of the Norwegian sailors who manned the boats is offered as a tribute from an English colleague to Norwegian seamanship, and as a humble memorial to those who lost their lives." - D.H. Owned by Sevrin Roald, Arne Roald and Olav Røsvik, of Vigra. Built by Einar Helland, Vestnes 1937. 60 feet (18m) long, with 85hp (63kW) Haahjem engine. They parachuted from an RAF plane, skied snowy hills, crossed icy rivers, detonated explosives to erase the entire inventory, and journeyed 400 kilometers to Sweden — completely undetected.