The Shetland Bus

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On its first voyage in November 1941 the Heland was skippered by one of the owners, Sevrin Roald, and made for Shetland, with two Company Linge agents Karl Johan Aarsæter and Åsmund Wisløff aboard. Using the false name M/K Per, it managed to get undamaged through the same storm in which the Blia disappeared, and returned to Norway with supplies to other agents. Shetlopedia.com - The Shetland Bus - Detailed information about the Shetland Bus operation, including information on boats and people lost

Flemington housed a separate staging area for fugitives “wanted” by the Germans — refugees who had just arrived from one of the long and exhaustive expeditions across the North Sea and the crew who were desperate for a fresh meal and a shower. The operational base at Lunna on the east coast was later moved to Scalloway , where the boats were repaired , until the end of the war.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. 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.

The 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. 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 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 Scotland The boats were crewed by young albeit expert sailors and fishermen with extensive local knowledge. Many brought their own vessels but some used boats that were “stolen”, with the owner's permission, of course. The Shetland Bus Memorial is located at Scalloway, and the local museum has a permanent exhibition relating to the activities of the Shetland Bus. [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] In popular culture [ edit ] When the German guard along the Norwegian coast was tightened in 1943, the Shetland Bus switched to three smaller American submarine fighters. This increased the success rate of the missions. Riding the Shetland Bus 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.

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.Lunna House was the first headquarter for the Shetland Bus operations during World War II. Photo courtesy of Aldebaran/Wikimedia Commons. The first official journey was carried out by the Norwegian fishing vessel the Aksel, which left Luna Ness on 30 August 1941 on route to Bremen in Norway. This book examines that first journey, as well later ones, and discusses the agents and operations which members of the Shetland Bus were involved in throughout the war. It also looks at the donation of 3 submarine chasers to the operation, made in October 1943, by the United States Navy.