THE SHETLAND BUS

There are still many stories and many lessons to be learned from World War Two. One that many North Americans don’t know is the story of the Shetland Bus. The Shetland Islands are part of Scotland, a little chain of islands 110 miles north of mainland Scotland by sea. It next nearest neighbour is Norway, 140 miles across the North Sea.

When the Germans occupied neutral Norway in 1940, and drove away its king and government, some means of transport and communication between the British and the Norwegian underground had to be established. This task fell to Major L.H. Mitchell (Mitch) of the Army and Sub-lieutenant David Howarth of the Navy. They chose as their permanent headquarters an isolated anchorage on Shetland’s main island called Lunna Voe. It had an old house that could accommodate 35 people, and many outhouses that could be used to store food, ammunition and the explosives which they would be exporting surreptitiously to Norway.

The buses were a fleet of five fishing boats, fifty to seventy feet long. Eventually, the fleet grew to 35 fishing vessels. They looked exactly like the other hundreds of fishing boats that would be out every day fishing in that area; it was important that they look like other fishing boats to German eyes. The crews were Norwegian sailors who knew the fjords intimately. In daylight they mingled with other fishing boats. After dark, they made their way through complicated fjords to assigned places to pick up or drop off spies. They also brought back many refugees. Every trip was full of danger and the unexpected.

In 1951, David Howarth wrote The Shetland Bus. A Scotttish friend (Alec Weir) gave me a copy which I foolishly loaned and never got back. Recently I ordered an updated copy through ABE books. Issued in 1998, it also has many wonderful photos. An exciting read.