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The Shetland Bus

The Shetland Bus

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There were "Hardanger Cutters", with a straight bow and long stern from the Bergen area, and the more rounded "Møre Cutters" from the area around Ålesund. It appeared that the "Møre Cutter" was the strongest and best fitted for the heavy weather in the North Sea. Most of their crossings were done in the dark winter months with storms and heavy seas. Eventually the risks became so great and the Germans so suspicious of fishing boats that the group began looking for other alternatives. They were given a few American-made submarine chasers and finished out the war using those with great success.

Lunna House, Shetland Islands, where the boat crews lived and operations were coordinated. Photo by Aldebaran At the beginning of the war, small Norwegian fishing boats were used to transport intelligence and supplies, and offer Norwegian refugees passage to Britain. The operation was under British command, but later it became a joint effort. Collectively, the group of men who were the Shetland Bus originally had the name of the Norwegian Naval Independent Unit, but in October 1943, when it officially became part of the Royal Norwegian Navy, it was renamed the Royal Norwegian Naval Special Unit. Another agent transport was made in January 1942. On 27 February 1942, the Heland arrived at Lunna with 23 refugees, among them, Milorg's district leader in the Ålesund area, Trygve Rypdal and family. Sevrin Roald brought his wife, Inga, with him and they both became part of the land crew in the "Shetland Bus" operation in Scalloway. The Shetland “Bus” was a crucial connection for the resistance, as well as the arrival of Norwegian refugees to Shetland, formed by Norwegian fishing ships that would make trips between Norway and Shetland communities like Kergord and Lunna. Scalloway would go on to become the main base for the Bus from 1942 onwards. It now holds most of the memorials and tributes dedicated to the operation.No British-made boat could successfully sneak into the harbors without raising an eyebrow. If a British sailor fluent in Norwegian were to be questioned, he would certainly garner an accent. The value in using Norwegian sailors was that they countered avoidable risks; local knowledge to distinguish manmade flaws in the landscape — a sentry, perhaps, or a new fixture designed to overwatch the coast — was a priceless asset. Plus, each knew the route from memory and had unmatched seamanship fishing off the shores of Greenland and Iceland during the summer. The true story of the Shetland bus, the clandestine traffic across the North Sea from German-occupied Norway to Shetland during the Second World War. A small group of Norwegian sailors loosely connected to the British Royal Navy take refugees from Norway to Shetland in small fishing boats, equipped only with small arms to protect themselves from German aircraft and patrol boats. The film is closely based on real events, and many of the members of the group, [2] including the leader, known as "Shetlands-Larsen", play themselves. The script was written by Øystein Brekke. I continually had to remind myself that the Norwegians involved were not only volunteers, but were also civilians. These were patriots who wanted to see their country free of the German occupiers and would do anything to help, even something as seemingly small as transporting undercover agents in their fishing boats. Several crews were killed during these operations, yet the remaining crews never faltered in their commitment to the cause. 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. Occupation of Norway was strategic for the Nazis because it would allow them to establish naval ports and air bases to engage the Allies across Europe. Cut off from the rest of the world, Norwegian civilians were in need of salvation. A miracle came in the form of a clandestine mission headquartered hundreds of miles away using a motley crew of Norwegian fisherman with guidance from officers of Britain’s Special Operations Executive ( SOE).

ZetTrans does not have a policy covering the carriage of animals on public transport. The decision whether or not to permit animals on board vehicles is at the discretion of the individual service operator. Bicyles on Buses Popularly known as Shetlands Larsen, Leif Larsen was a highly decorated Norwegian sailor. He was arguably the most famous of all who operated the route. Of the 198 trips to Norway, Larsen completed 52 of them. Leif Larsen led the Norwegian bus operations in World War II Sælen, Frithjof (1973). None But the Brave: Story of "Shetlands" Larsen (HarperCollins) ISBN 978-0583121286The early plans for the Shetland Bus put the operation under British Command. The Brits lost resources through aircraft and naval vessels due to the losses at Dunkirk but had the logistics to pull off the cloak-and-dagger nature of the job. At sea, however, the Norwegians led the charge. One of the highlights of the book was a scheme to destroy the German battleship Tirpitz while it sat in a Norwegian fjord. The unit made extensive preparations and nearly succeeded. The plan was to use a vessel called a chariot, kind of like a two-man torpedo. The chariot would be launched at night from a fishing boat, guided by two men, and taken right to their target. Then they would unscrew the warhead, attach it to the Tirpitz with magnets, set a timer, and be on their way across the Norwegian frontier into neutral Sweden. They practiced, prepared, got through a German control point where their boat was searched, and nearly made it to the Tirpitz before the two chariots (being towed behind the ship so they wouldn’t be noticed during inspection) disappeared—somehow the lines broke. Major L.H. Mitchell , a thin British army officer, arrived on the Shetland Islands in December 1940. He was sent by the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and SOE. His first task required the setup of a headquarters at Flemington , a two-story farmhouse on a tree plantation developed into a rendezvous point for SOE officers to brief mission plans. Flemington’s garden provided a test range for operators to use their equipment and enhance wireless communications, so they would know how to confront a malfunction when the equipment was used in actual operations. The Shetland Bus plays a role in the plot of mystery novel, Red Bones by Ann Cleeves, and in the BBC television series based on Cleeves' novels, Shetland, episodes 1 and 2, "Red Bones". [15] See also [ edit ]

In the event of service disruption, updates can be obtained by calling the Public Bus Service Voicebank on 01595 745744. Updates will also be provided at www.shetnews.co.uk. Following the war, his legend continued as he pioneered aluminum lifeboats and tested their mettle himself across an 800-mile voyage with a mixed batch of amateur seafarers and seasoned veterans. One of his crew quipped they were “hanging on for dear life.” Larsen, however, described it as “a nice little holiday” and “a cakewalk.” I can assure you and Dwight that the Shetland Bus is far from forgotten in the village of Scalloway where it was based. There are people still living in the village who remeber it well. Several Shetland Bus personnel married local women and the descendants of some of them still live here. A mission on the horizon in 1942 to target the German battleship Tirpitz was given to the only skipper bold enough to carry it out. The Tirpitz looked like a skyscraper on its side, outfitted with the biggest guns the German Navy had ever built. To say it was enormous would be an understatement. Strategically placed at the Trondheim fjord, British destroyers and aircraft carriers were occupied in its surveillance but were desperately needed elsewhere.

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During the Second World War, the Shetland Bus played a crucial role during Germany’s occupation of Norway. But all was not death and destruction for the Shetland Bus. Flemington House has a distinction that, if not unique, certainly ranks as a rarity in the history of special operations. Capt. Arthur W. Sclater succeeded Mitchell in December 1942; Alice, his Norwegian-born wife, served as welfare officer for the crews. On March 26, 1945, in one of Flemington House’s bedrooms, she gave birth to their second son, Michael. A Royal Navy chaplain conducted the baptism using the ship’s bell of a submarine as a font. The value in using Norwegian sailors was that they countered avoidable risks; local knowledge to distinguish manmade flaws in the landscape — a sentry, perhaps, or a new fixture designed to overwatch the coast — was a priceless asset.

Kompani Linge’s most praised contribution to World War II was certainly Operation Gunnerside , the destruction of the heavy water plant in Vemork. The Nazis had plans to develop a nuclear bomb, and Norwegian commandos were sent to destroy the plant. 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.Only a few weeks after the occupation began, the first boats of an "armada" of fishing vessels and other boats began to arrive in Shetland. Many of these boats made several journeys across the North Sea carrying refugees. The boats were of many types and shapes, but most of those later used as the "Shetland Bus", were from 50 to 70 feet (21m), with two masts and equipped with a 30 to 70hp (52kW) single-cylinder semi-diesel engine, which made the characteristic 'tonk-tonk' sound. They had a maximum speed of 9 knots (17km/h). Those boats are the ten "Shetland Bus" boats that were lost from the base in Scalloway. For different reasons, there were some boats that started out from a base in Peterhead, and some of them were also lost. The last of the crew of Vita was Jens Haldorssen. He was a quiet, gentle, and studious man. His quietness made him conspicuous in our gang, most of whose members were extrovert and noisy, and his appearance also was not what one would expect in a seaman of proven toughness. With a thin ascetic face, and large calm and innocent brown eyes, he looked more like a priest or a poet. He spoke fluent English with an idiom all his own, and I always enjoyed hearing him telling a story in a slow, rather mournful voice, in which the most powerful swear words passed almost unnoticed (30)."



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