Shetland bus
was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the surrender of Nazi Germany on 8 May 1945.
The unit was operated initially by a large number of small fishing boats and later augmented by three fast and well-armed submarine chasers – Vigra, Hessa and Hitra.
This meant the crews and passengers had to endure very heavy North Sea conditions, with no lights and constant risk of discovery by German aircraft or patrol boats.
The fishing boats were armed with light machine guns concealed inside oil drums placed on deck.
The operation was under constant threat from German forces, and several missions went awry, of which the Telavåg tragedy in spring 1942 was a prime example.
[2] When Germany launched Operation Weserübung, the invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, French and British troops and ships were sent to help the Norwegians.
Several coastal towns were bombed and destroyed by the Germans, and during April and May, the British ships had to retreat from mid-Norway.
The boats were of many kinds and shapes, but most of those used as a "Shetland Bus", were from 50–70 feet (15–21 m) long, with two masts and equipped with a 30 to 70 hp single-cylinder semi-diesel engine, which made the characteristic "tonk-tonk" sound.
They asked some of the skippers of the boats that were coming from Norway, if they would return to deliver agents and bring others back to Shetland.
The men put in charge of organising the group were a British Army officer, Major Leslie Mitchell and his assistant, Lieutenant David Howarth RNVR.
Upon their arrival in Shetland they commandeered Flemington House, (later named "Kergord"), in Weisdale, for their headquarters and they found a perfect location in Lunna Ness north of Lerwick, from which the boats could operate.
Their whole staff consisted of three British sergeants; Almond, Sherwood and Olsen; Norman Edwards, a stenographer; Harald Albertsen, a Norwegian cook at Lunna and two maids in Flemington.
Later, they moved the boats and crews to Scalloway, where William Moore & Son had a mechanical workshop and where "Prince Olav's Slipway" was built.
Mitchell left the base in Scalloway in December 1942 and Captain Arthur William Sclater, known as "Rogers", became leader of operations; his Norwegian-born wife, Alice, acted as welfare officer for the crews.
On 26 October 1943, the US Navy officially transferred the submarine chasers Hitra, Vigra, and Hessa to the Shetland Bus operation.
On 9 May 1945, Vigra, commanded by Larsen, and Hitra, by Eidsheim, entered the harbour of Lyngøy near Bergen in free Norway.
The group had made 198 trips to Norway in fishing boats and submarine chasers, Leif Larsen completing 52 of them.
The crews of the Shetland Bus (Shetlandsgjengen) were men of the coast, fishermen and sailors with detailed local knowledge.
[9] Larsen was born in Bergen, Norway and joined the Norwegian volunteers during the Finnish Winter War.
After training with Kompani Linge in England and Scotland, Larsen returned to Lerwick in the St Magnus on 19 August 1941.
When Hessa was under repair, Iversen served as engineer on Vigra and did one tour on a Norwegian Navy MTB.
The first of the Shetland Bus men to lose his life was Nils Nesse, 23, from Bremnes on the island Bømlo south of Bergen.
Nesse was buried at Lunna Kirk churchyard with a Scottish ceremony, because there was no Norwegian clergyman to conduct the funeral.
[12] In 2018 Norwegian visitors were among those attending a service at the memorial to commemorate the 75th anniversary of an improvement in the safety of operations as a result of the introduction of new ships - the Hitria, Vigra and Hessa[13] Films portraying the Shetland Bus include Shetlandsgjengen (1954; released as Suicide Mission in the United States)[14] in which Leif Larsen played himself.
