The Shetland Bus

With the current problems that the world faces with terrorism this is an appropriate time to reflect back to the role that Shetland played in the Second World War in that battle against the Nazi war machine.

Younger readers might think that the isolated nature of Shetland would have insulated the Islands from the war, and certainly the bombing that hit so much of south east England did not occur. But Shetland played its own vital role. And that is where the analogy with the current crisis is relevant if we see the Shetland contribution in a similar light to the specialist teams that may soon go into Afghanistan to destroy terrorist bases.

In 1940 Nazi forces invaded Norway and after the retreat from Dunkirk in 1941 small Norwegian fishing boats with their distinctive single cylinder diesel engines sailed between Shetland and Norway to land men and materials on the Norwegian coast to assist the Norwegian resistance movement and to bring refugees back to Shetland.

The sailing was extremely hazardous. The boats had to sail in the rough North Sea at night, with no lights and far from any possible help. Shetlanders were only too well aware that survival in the cold semi arctic water was only a matter of minutes. Always present in the minds of those on board would have been the threat of discovery and the risk of being shot at by German planes or boats, and possibly captured when they finally reached the Norwegian coast.

Two excellent books have been written by David Howarth. The first was printed in 1951 entitled " The Shetland Bus" which describes the story of this special operation while the second book, "We die alone" published in 1955 describes the action of one of the Norwegian Resistance fighters Jan Baalstud. Both are compelling reading.

This has now been taken a step further by Colin Nicol who is head of history at the Scalloway Junior High School. A website has been set up commemorating the exploits of these brave men and I really would encourage readers to visit the site. This article is just a brief introduction to a fascinating time in Shetland history

A lot of Shetlanders and Norwegians have assisted Colin with the project including the Shetland Museum, Scalloway Museum and the local history group, the Imperial War Museum, the Norwegian Resistance museum, and the North Sea Traffic Museum (Nordsjøfart Museet), the Scottish Media Group, the Partner Schools Comenius project, Shetland Times Ltd, Shetland Litho, Shetland Life, Kåre Iversen (one of the original crewmen), J R Nicolson, Tommy Isbister, Barbara Johnson (School Librarian), Brian Smith (Shetland Archivist), the Shetland library and lastly but by no means least the pupils at Scalloway Junior High School.

The Gathering of the Clans

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