Being there . . . . on deck of any one of 14 tiny Shetland Island fishing boats in the usual stormy North Sea shuttling SOE agents to, and Gestapo-hunted Allied spies and saboteurs from, Norway . . .
HOW BRITISH AND NORWEGIAN TRAWLERS OPENLY DEFIED HITLER’S NAVYPart Four of A 10-Part SeriesCelebrating America’s Best
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Reviewed and Highly Recommended by Don DeNevi
“The Shetland ‘BUS’ – – Transporting Secret Agents Across the North Sea in WW2”, by Stephen Wynn. Pen & Sword MILITARY, dist. By Casemate Publishing: 204 pages, hc; $39.95
www.casematepublishers.comcasemate@casematepublishers.com
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Superdreadnoughts Bismarck and sister ship Tirpitz were no match. Neither were the battlecruisers, Gneisenau, Graf Spee, and Admiral Scheer. Any one of the Shetland ‘buses’, on any given day, under any weather condition, could out navigate, control, manage, circle, pace, glide, and out-boat any of the above behemoths.
The Shetland “Bus” was not a. bus, but the nickname of a special operations group that set up a. route across the North Sea between the rugged coast of Norway and the Shetland Islands, northeast of mainland Scotland.
The first voyage was made by Norwegian sailors to help their compatriots in occupied Norway. Naturally, the British Secret Intelligence Service and SOE, the British Special Operations Executive, asked if they would be prepared to carry cargoes of British agents and equipment as well. “Yes, sir! We’ll be ready in less than a minute”, was the instant reply.
Fourteen boats of varying sizes and designs, woods, and riggings, were originally employed. Flemington House in Shetland was commandeered as the operation’s HQ. The first official journey was carried out by the Norwegian fishing vessel, The Askel, which left Luna Ness on August 30, 1941, on route to Bergen.
In his superlative handling of carefully researched material, author Stephen Wynn, a retired police officer who served more than 30 years with the Essex Police, examines that dangerous first journey, as well as later ones, all harrowing, then adds fascinating participant biographical sketches, the minutia details of operations, and the rarely acknowledged quality administrative work in the various offices of headquarters. Stephen also writes about the contributions made by the United States Navy, three American submarine chasers. The three gifts of torpedo-type boats were each 110 foot long and surprisingly fast for their weights, allowing journeying times between Shetland and Norway to the greatly reduced and carried out in greater safety.
As author Wynn points out, the story of the Shetland Bus would be “little” without the individuals, the men and women, involved from the sailors of the boats to the agents ferried between the two countries. Bravery and heroism were common, but rarely mentioned. In addition to the Shetland route being a lifeline to occupied Norway and its beleaguered citizens, it served as the conduit for select British and Norwegian combat specialists who linked with the underground to attack and destroy.
Leave it to Stephen Wynn to track down obscure, long forgotten, WW II subjects to research and write about, of course, for his own enjoyment, but I’d venture to say, more for the reader’s enjoyment. A good writer, but, more important, a darn good man.
