Shetland bus boats

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The Shetland bus operation consisted of a number of boats.

Germany started their invasion of Norway April 9th 1940. British battleships with troops were sent to help the Norwegians. Several coast towns were bombed and destroyed by the Germans, and in the last days of April and the first days of May, the British battleships had to retreat from mid-Norway. On April 29th, H.M.S. Glasgow left a totally destroyed Molde with King Haakon, Crown Prince Olav, members of the Norwegian Government and most of the gold from the Norwegian State Bank. In North Norway, the battles lasted for one more month.

Only a few weeks after the occupation started, the first boats of an 'armada' of fishing vessels and other boats began to arrive in Shetland. Many of these early boats made several tours across the North Sea with different kinds of refugees. The boats were of many types and shapes, but most of those later used as "Shetland Bus", were from 50 to 70-foot (21 m), with two masts and equipped with a 30 to 70 hp (52 kW) single cylindered semi diesel engine, which made the characteristic 'tonk-tonk' sound. They had a maximum speed of 9 knots (17 km/h)

Those engines were very special, spare parts were not available in the British Isles, but that was easily solved. Norway's largest engine factory, the 'Wickmann', at the time under German control, was located at Bømlo, near Bergen. The agents in the area got messages about which parts were needed, workers in the factory, many of them active members of the Resistance Movement, smuggled them out, and the parts were sent to Shetland with the next 'Bus'.

There were 'Hardanger Cutters', with a straight bow and long stern from the Bergen area, and the more rounded 'Møre Cutters' from the area around Ålesund. It appeared that the 'Møre Cutter' was the strongest and best fitted for the heavy weather in the North Sea. Most of their crossings were done in the dark winter months with storms and hurricanes.

Although these crossings were, by their nature, carried out in a manner to avoid enemy contact. The crews managed to equip the boats with several concealed weapons. David Howarth and Per Blystad invented many of these constructions. The most ingenious of these was a concrete lined oil drum bolted to the deck. When the removable lid was lifted, a pair of ready loaded Lewis guns were telescoped into firing position, with the aid of a counterweight belowdecks. A steel shield came automatically up to protect the gunner. Oil drums were a natural thing to carry on a fishing boat's deck. Once in the North Sea, one of the boats was inspected by a suspicious British Navy ship, all other weapons were confiscated, but they did not find the two double machine guns mounted on deck! Specially low mountings for double 0,5" Colt machine guns were mounted in the netroom, at the rear end of the boat. These were not totally hidden, but with the use of folding handles, triggers, aims and shields they managed to keep them just above the edge of the gunwale, and they were easy to camouflage with a net. A similar construction was mounted in the bow, with a tarpaulin over, of the same shape as the covering of the whaling harpoons many of the Norwegian fishing boats had in the bow. At last all of the Bus boats carried 7 - 8 mounted, ready armed machine guns, and were able to protect themselves against enemy aircraft attacks
In October 1943 the three American subchasers, Hitra, Vigra and Hessa, were delivered, and that made the tours across the North sea much safer. The subchasers made more than 100 crossings with no loss of ship and men. The only damage that occurred on the boats was when the'Hessa' was attacked by an allied airplane.

[edit] Boats used in The Shetland Bus Operation

• M/B Aksel (M40G) of Giske, 65-foot (20 m) long, the first 'Shetland Bus' boat, arrived Shetland on May 5th 1941 with 20 refugees.
  Skipper Anders Nærøy chose the 'Aksel' on the first official 'Shetland Bus' mission, August 30th 1941. The 'Aksel' later made several tours to Norway with different skippers.
  On December 8th 1942, the 'Aksel', on its way from Kristiansund, this time skippered by Bård Grotle, sent out a S.O.S. signal 200 nautical miles (370 km) north of Shetland. A Catalina plane and an MTB were sent out to search for the vessel. The next day the Catalina found the lifeboat with the crew, and the 'Aksel' nearly sunk nearby. The sea was too rough for the plane to go down, and the MTB had to return to Lerwick before they reached the lifeboat because of lack of fuel. Later the crew was never to be found. Several planes and boats searched for days, but the crew of 6 were lost.

• M/K Heland (M5V), owned by Sevrin Roald, Arne Roald and Olav Røsvik, Vigra.
  Built by Einar Helland, Vestnes 1937. 60-foot (18 m) long, with 85 hp (63 kW) Håhjem engine.
  The first tour the 'Heland', skippered by one of the owners, Sevrin Roald, made to Shetland, was with two 'Company Linge' agents; Karl Johan Aarsæter and Åsmund Wisløff, in November 1941. The 'Heland', using the false name 'M/K Per', managed to get undamaged through the same hurricane in which the 'Blia' disappeared, and returned to Norway with supplies to other agents. Another agent transport was done in January 1942. On February 27th 1942, the 'Heland' arrived Lunna with 23 refugees, among them, MILORG's district leader in the Ålesund area, Trygve Rypdal with family. Sevrin Roald brought his wife, Inga, with him and they both became part of the landcrew in the'Shetland Bus' operation in Scalloway.

As a 'Shetland Bus', the 'Heland made several tours to Norway, mostly skippered by August Nerø, but with other skippers too. There were many narrow escapes, but the vessel always returned safely to Shetland.
In 1943, when the submarine chasers arrived, the 'Heland' became reserve vessel and did transport tours to Scotland.

When the war ended, the 'Heland' was returned to Norway and became fishing vessel again. In 1971, it was given to 'Sunnmøre Museum'. The 'Heland' is now preserved as a typical representative fishing vessel of the 'Shetland Bus' fleet.

• M/B Vita (H95B), was built by Lindestøl Shipyard, Risør, in 1939 for Lorenz Knudsen a.o., Brandanes. The 'Vita' had a 40 hp (30 kW) Wickmann engine.
  The 'Vita' arrived Shetland on May 9th 1940 with 4 Norwegian Navy officers and 2 other refugees. The 'Vita' started as a "BUS" boat before "The Shetland Bus" was established. Her first tour to Norway was December 22nd 1940, skippered by Hilmar Langøy. The next was March 27th 1942, this time skippered by Ingvald Johansen, who became her skipper on the rest of her tours. Johansen's crew were; Åge Sandvik, H.W. Olsen, Jens Haldorsen and J. Hermansen. In May 1941, they picked up the 12 refugees from M/B Signal (M331A), which had had an engine failure and was drifting 60 nautical miles (110 km) off the Norwegian coast. In mid September 1941, the 'Vita' made a 900-nautical-mile (1,670 km) tour to North Trøndelag. She made 7 successful tours to Norway before the one which became her last. Skipper Johansen did not always follow the security rules. One time he posted a letter in Norway to his fiancee. He told her when and where he would be back, and asked her to meet him and come with him to Shetland. The girl got the letter, met him and followed. In Shetland they got married, and Johansen did not get any punishment for his breaking of security rules.

On September 22nd 1941, the 'Vita' had a new tour to North Trøndelag, this time to Rekøy, were they should pick up some refugees. A traitor had told the Germans about the transport, the'Vita' was seized and the crew arrested. The crew spent the rest of the war in prison, while the Germans used the 'Vita' as a watch boat. After the war she became fishing boat in the North Sea again, until she was given to "Trondhjems Sjøfartsmuseum" (a sea museum) in 1990. In 1995 she was taken over by "Kystmuseet i Sør-Trøndelag" (South-Trøndelag Costal Museum) Hitra, who preserved her. Now the 'Vita' is in use to show different groups a 'Shetland Bus' boat.

• M/B Olaf (M73V), owned by Ansgar Sønderland and Johan O. Rørvik, Vigra.
  52 foot long and with a 60 hp (45 kW) June-Munktell engine.
  The owners gave their approval to use the 'Olaf' in a refugee transport. It arrived Lerwick Sept. 30th 1941 with 17 refugees. The vessel was handed over to the 'Shetland Bus' operation and Per Blystad from Fana became skipper. In the winter 1942, the 'Olaf' made 5 tours to Norway with agents, supplies and returning with refugees. The crew on these tours were; Olai Hillersøy, Arne Nipen, Leif Kinn and Olav Kinn. On a tour the 17th of April 1942, the 'Olaf' went to Telavåg with the 'Company Linge' agents Arne Værum and Emil Hvaal. The agents were discovered by the Germans, and that led later to the 'Telavåg Tragedy', were the whole population were jailed or put in camps, and all the houses burned in revenge for two German 'Gestapo' leaders death.
  The Olaf was several times attacked by German planes and damaged, but it always managed to get back to Shetland. The worst damage occurred on May 12th 1942. Three crewmembers from the wrecked 'Frøya', along with some others, went out with the 'Olaf' to search for a raft with four of the 'Frøya' crew. They were attacked 5 times by a German 'Dornier' bomber. The vessel was severely damaged, and some of the crew wounded. One of the three crewmen from the 'Frøya', Hans Johansen, later died of his wounds.
  The 'Olaf' did no more tours and after the war it was returned to the owners who sold it in 1948.

[edit] Boats Lost

• September 1941
  M/S Vita (H95B), skippered by Ingvald Johannesen, lost when seized by Germans in Rekøy, Norway. Crew arrested.
• Oct. 20th. 1941
  Nordsjøen, a minelayer, skippered by Gjertsen, sunk in heavy weather on the coast of West Norway. All men survived and returned to Shetland Oct 31th. with the ship M/K Arthur.
• Nov. 14th. 1941
  M/K Blia (H197S) , skippered by Ingvald Lerøy disappeared in a hurricane on the way from Norway to Shetland. The lives of the crew of 7 and 35 Norwegian refugees were lost.
  In the same hurricane , one man was blown overboard and lost from M/K Arthur, skippered by Leif Larsen.

• Aug/Sept 1942
  Sjø , a 28-foot (8.5 m) open boat, with Per Blystad and Mindor Berge was in Norway on a research mission. They were taken prisoners by the Germans and later shot.
• October 1942
  M/K Arthur (M192B), skippered by Leif Larsen was scuttled in the Trondheimsfjord after a failed attempt to attack the German battleship 'Tirpitz'.Larsen and his crew escaped over land to Sweden, but a British agent following, was taken prisoner by Germans and shot.
• Dec. 8th. 1942
  M/K Aksel (M40G) , skippered by Bård Grotle , sunk in the North Sea on the way back to Shetland . All 6 men lost their lives.
• 'Dec. 10th. 1942
  M/B Sandøy, skippered by Harald Dyb, was attacked by German planes and sunk. 7 men were lost.
• January 1943
  M/B Feiøy (H10AM) , skippered by Ole Grotle disappeared on the way to Norway. 8 men were lost.
• March 23th. 1943
  M/K Bergholm , skippered by Leif Larsen , was attacked by German planes and sunk. One man was killed in the attack. Larsen and 6 men, some wounded , managed to reach the coast of Norway, and returned to Shetland later.
• March 30th. 1943
  M/K Brattholm (M172HØ), skippered by Sverre Kverhellen. Attacked by German torpedoboat. Of the crew of 8 and 4 agents, only one, Jan Baalsrud, survived. The rest were either killed in the attack or taken prisoner by the Germans, tortured, and shot in prison.

Those boats listed above are the ten "Shetland Bus" boats that were lost from the base in Scalloway. For different reasons, there were some boats that started out from a base in Peterhead, and some of them were lost.

• M/B Frøya (M32G), was a rather new 70-foot (21 m) 'Møre cutter' which had arrived Shetland on March 16th 1942, with the agent Knut Årsæter and four other men from the Ålesund area. Towards the end of April, the vessel was sent out on a special mission to Troms, North Norway with a crew of seven and two agents. Off the coast of Trøndelag, the 'Frøya' was bombed by a German plane, and began to sink. They had only a small lifeboat, hardly 12-foot (4 m) long, and the skipper decided that only five men could board the boat. They made a raft of empty oil barrels for the others, and the skipper joined the men on the raft.
  The five men in the lifeboat soon lost all their provisions, as they were washed out in the heavy sea, and they had to keep up a continuous bailing. They had a sail and tried to steer for Shetland. After several days, with no food and only the rainwater they could collect to drink, they sighted Muckle Flugga. Soon after they were picked up by a ship and told about the four men on the raft. Ships and planes were sent out searching.

Two of the men from the lifeboat were in a very bad condition, and were sent to hospital, while the other three were sent to the refugee camp in Lerwick. After a 24 hour sleep, these three men went out with the 'Olaf' to help search for the raft. They were again attacked by German planes, and hardly made it back to Baltasound. One of the three men later died of the wounds he had got in the attack.

Everyone believed that the four men on the raft were lost, but when the war ended, it was known that they had all survived.

After drifting for 12 days in the heavy weather in the North Sea, the were spotted by a German airplane and rescued. They told that they were ordinary Norwegian shipwrecked fishermen, and were put in a German POW camp, where they stayed until the end of the war.

• M/B Streif (H261B), was another boat lost out of the Peterhead base.

The 'Streif' was sent out on a mission to Trøndelag, with an agent and supplies. The crew were the crew of the 'Harald', who had got an engine failure. They went out with no navigator, because he had fallen ill, and there was no other available. The tour to Norway went well, but on their return , the engine stopped , and they started drifting. After some days they managed to start the engine again, but they had no idea where they were. One day they saw a British plane, and flashed a signal. The plane turned eastward, and they believed that they were west of Shetland, and steered south, as they were bound for Peterhead.

After some time, they grounded on a sandbank. They realized that they had reached the coast of Holland, and managed to get rid of their weapons and other suspicious things before the Germans arrived. They told a story about escaping from the British who wanted their vessel. The story was believed, and all were sent to an ordinary POW camp. If not, they surely would have been executed. By coincidence they met the crew from the 'Frøya' raft in the camp, and joined them until the war was ended.

The 'Streif' stayed in Holland, and the owner's son has told that long after the war, he got letters with questions about the engine.

• The fishing vessel Bodø was a third boat lost from the base in Peterhead.

The 'Bodø' was sent out from Peterhead to South Norway with commando soldiers to the later failed "Operation Carhampton", on January 1st 1943. On her return, the 'Bodø' hit a mine near the Scottish coast, and the whole crew were lost. One of her crewmen, Olaf Skarpenes, has his name on the Monument in Scalloway.

This article incorporates text from the article The_Shetland_Bus_Boats on Shetlopedia, which was licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License until September 14, 2007.