The Shetland Bus

The Shetland Bus and the Shetland Group

The Shetland Bus and the Shetland Group are an important part of Norwegian war history. This was a secret Norwegian naval unit that, during World War II, transported resistance fighters, agents, and refugees back and forth between Shetland and Norway. The crew of these vessels was popularly known as the “Shetland Group.” Later in the war, the group became part of the Royal Norwegian Navy and was renamed the Royal Norwegian Special Naval Unit.

Special Operations Executive, Norwegian Section
SOE was established in the autumn of 1940, with a base in Shetland for operations against Norway. The aim was to create resistance groups, mainly composed of Norwegians, who could identify economic targets for the British, such as factories and power plants. These groups were tasked with sabotaging enemy communications, lighthouses, ferries, observation posts, and airfields. Additionally, they were involved in minelaying and provided assistance in connection with air and sea raids, as well as establishing radio communication.

To carry out these missions fishing boats approved for Allied service were primarily used. Other fishing vessels were designated for fishing to supply food to the island region. Alongside the SOE, there was another special force known as Combined Operations (CO), led by Commander Ian Fleming (who would later go on to write the James Bond novels), which was tasked with carrying out pinprick operations against the enemy. In March 1941, CO conducted a raid in the Lofoten Islands named Operation Claymore.

Following this, Fleming was assigned to assemble a group of boats from various countries to carry out several operations during Christmas 1941. These operations involved the Royal Norwegian Navy, the Norwegian Independent Company No. 1 (later known as Kompani Linge) and The Shetland Bus.

The mission was to procure twelve small fishing boats, referred to as the Small Vessels Pool, with a strong recommendation to use Norwegian naval personnel to crew these vessels. A few days before Fleming received the assignment, the leadership of the SOE had a meeting with a Norwegian naval officer in 'The Marines Motorboat Flotilla' in the English Channel. This meeting laid the foundation for the Norwegian MTB flotilla (Motor Torpedo Boats) and involved training Norwegian personnel to attack German shipping using camouflaged, heavily armed boats. At the same time, fishing boats were to attack various ports.

From June 1942 until the end of the war, the MTBs were organised as the 30th (N) MTB Flotilla, later renumbered to the 54th (N), and eventually based in Lerwick. The MTBs were also used for inserting and extracting saboteurs and agents to and from occupied Norway, along with the American-built submarine chasers, Hitra, Hessa, and Vigra, based in Scalloway, Shetland. The flotilla had at its disposal eight MTBs of the seagoing 'Fairmile type D', with a top speed of over 30 knots. Norway operated a total of twenty one vessels of this type during the war, though never more than twelve at a time.

From November 1942 to May 1945, the Norwegian MTBs carried out a total of one hundred and sixty one missions along the Norwegian coast, from Trondheim in the north to Kristiansand in the south. During the war, they sank a total of twenty seven ships, including seven warships.

Eight MTBs were lost due to fire, sea damage, explosions, or similar causes, and twenty crew members lost their lives in artillery battles, accidental explosions, bombings, or executions. The mission of SOE and Combined Operations (CO) gradually became more focused on supporting the local resistance movement, MILORG, and weakening specific targets, particularly in northern and western Norway. The task of training forty to fifty Norwegians was assigned to Captain Martin Linge.

This led to the execution of the Svolvær raid, the Lofoten raid, and the raid on Måløy, which became the foundation and backbone of the Shetland Bus operation.

KNM Vitra

The Effort... and the Losses

The Shetland Bus made over two hundred trips in total. Unfortunately, ten fishing boats were lost and forty four men lost their lives.

The following vessels made up the Shetland Bus fleet:

KNM Hitra
KNM Vigra
KNM Hessa

During World War II, the Royal Norwegian Navy operated one hundred and eighteen warships flying the Norwegian flag. Of these, twenty were lost. In total, nine hundred and thirty three men gave their lives in the Naval service following the German invasion of Norway.

The losses in the merchant fleet were even greater, both in terms of ships and human lives. Even before 9 April 1940, while Norway was still neutral, nearly four hundred Norwegian sailors lost their lives and fifty eight ships were lost. By 8 May 1945, a total of four hundred and seventy three Norwegian ships were sunk, in addition to one hundred and ninty nine ships in the domestic fleet.

Including passengers, more than four thousand people died on board Norwegian ships, of which just under one thousand were foreigners. In addition, there were deaths from other causes, such as suicide, illness and other accidents.