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Leif A. Larsen
A Famous Member of the Shetland Bus
One of the most famous members of the Shetland Bus operation
Leif Andreas Larsen, DSO, DSC, CGM, DSM and Bar (9 January 1906 – 12 October 1990), was popularly known as ‘Shetlands-Larsen’.
He helped train Kompani Linge in Scotland from 1940 and became the most highly decorated Allied naval officer by the end of World War II.
Larsen and the Shetland Bus hold a significant place in Norwegian maritime history. In addition to Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, Scalloway was the most important port for the Shetland Bus operations.
In October 1942, Larsen led an expedition to attack the battleship Tirpitz with ‘human torpedoes’ in Åsenfjorden, near Trondheim. The attempt failed because the torpedoes malfunctioned during a storm. Larsen then scuttled the fishing boat Arthur and led the crew to Sweden, where they were sent back to Britain. Despite the raids failure, Larsen received a Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, the first non-Briton to do so.
He twice shipwrecked along the Norwegian coast but managed to return to Britain each time. Eighty Nine trips were made with fishing vessels before they were replaced by three American-built submarine chasers, which carried out an additional one hundred and sixteen missions along the Norwegian coast.
When German surveillance along the coast intensified in 1943, the Shetland Bus was assigned three smaller American submarine chasers, KNM Hitra, KNM Hessa and KNM Vigra, which the Royal Norwegian Navy had taken over.
The fishing boats and submarine chasers collectively rescued 373 refugees from Norway, landed 192 agents and delivered around 400 tons of weapons and supplies to the Norwegian resistance.
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