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The Shetland Bus

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Initially it operated informally, and then became a formal part of the war effort completing more than 200 trips. Not all of those trips were successful, and 44 lives were lost during the crossings.

Pal Hope, defence attache for the UK, said: “Visiting (Shetland) now with the rough conditions, we can only imagine what it was like in the small vessels they were operating at the time. Germany launched their invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940, and despite the efforts of the Norwegians and the British, the Germans controlled most of the country by the beginning of May. The occupation of Norway and the oppression which followed immediately prompted a number of Norwegians to escape and make landfall in the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Following the war, Larsen received multiple medals in both Norway and Britain. According to Scalloway Museum, no other non-Brit has received more British medals. ZetTrans does not have a policy covering the carriage of animals on public transport. The decision whether or not to permit animals on board vehicles is at the discretion of the individual service operator. Bicyles on Buses

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At the onset of World War II, the Kingdom of Norway was not allied with the Axis or Allied Powers, leading both factions to consider invading the country due to its strategic position in the North Sea. While the British in particular drew plans to mine Norwegian waters and prevent Axis ships from transiting these waters, Nazi Germany actually invaded and occupied the country in 1940. T he Shetland Bus operation may be considered successful in that it supplied Norwegian resistance movements with weapons and took many refugees from Norway to Shetland, and that it managed to bind just shy of 300,000 German troops in Norway. However, because of this operation, forty-four men lost their lives, and the Norwegian public may not have been too happy having a huge number of German men patrolling their country. It could have been due to this operation that D-Day was an Allied victory, and many other key areas throughout Western Europe could have been hugely affected by the influence of the Shetland Bus. This small operation, secret to almost everybody, could have played a major role in these battles, influencing the course of the entire war itself. This could be an exaggeration, but the implications of the operation may well have had an effect this big. At first, there were fourteen fishing boats of various sizes. The original Shetland Bus boat, the Aksel, skippered by August Nærøy, departed for Bergen from Hamna Voe, on the west side of Lunna Ness, on 30 August 1941. The other crew on this first tour were Mindor Berge, Ivar Brekke, Andreas Gjertsen, and Bård Grotle. [5] Fishing boats were used at first, but after some losses, it was decided that faster vessels were necessary. On 26 October 1943, the US Navy officially transferred the submarine chasers Hitra, Vigra, and Hessa to the Shetland Bus operation. These craft were 110 feet (34m) long and powered by two 1,200hp diesel engines, capable of a top speed of 22kn (25mph; 41km/h), with a normal cruising speed of 17kn (20mph; 31km/h). When the submarine chasers arrived, the group became an official part of the Royal Norwegian Navy and was renamed the Royal Norwegian Naval Special Unit (RNNSU). Every time they geared up to go overseas to Norway you never new what was going to happen - did I mention they’re using modified fishing boats? They don’t have any major military support. If I remember correctly I think only one guy on the whole base is even a military officer. The charity recently opened a new museum which includes a section dedicated to Shetland Bus memorabilia. Our most recent acquisition is a four man rowing boat which was brought across on a restored Shetland Bus fishing boat from Norway.

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. The true story of the Shetland bus, the clandestine traffic across the North Sea from German-occupied Norway to Shetland during the Second World War. A small group of Norwegian sailors loosely connected to the British Royal Navy take refugees from Norway to Shetland in small fishing boats, equipped only with small arms to protect themselves from German aircraft and patrol boats. The film is closely based on real events, and many of the members of the group, [2] including the leader, known as "Shetlands-Larsen", play themselves. The script was written by Øystein Brekke.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. To begin with, the Shetland Bus operation consisted of fourteen Norwegian fishing boats of differing sizes. But the vessel which undertook the first Shetland Bus journey was the Aksel, whose captain was August Nanny. His crew on that inaugural journey which left for Bergen from Hamnavoe, on the west side of Lunna Ness, on 30 August 1941, were Mindor Berge, Ivar Brekke, Andreas Gjertsen, and Bard Grotle. When the war ended, the Heland returned to Norway and became fishing vessel again. In 1971, it was donated to Sunnmøre Museum. The Heland is now preserved as a typical representative fishing vessel of the "Shetland Bus" fleet. ZetTrans recognises that public bus services must be effective in providing for a number of different needs beyond those of the daily commute. With this in mind, ZetTrans is committed to ensuring that the public bus service seeks to meet the needs of all its users while remaining affordable and being better integrated with inter-island ferry and plane services. Timetable Information WWII seems to have been so overwhelmingly huge that I don't think I'll ever stop finding books that tell stories that surprise me. This one is the story of an undercover supply line between the Shetland islands and occupied Norway. Participants were Norwegian civilian fishermen and UK soldiers and sailors, including the author who was one of the commanders.

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