Skorpa

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Skorpa is the name of a number of islands in Norway.

On of them is an uninhabited island in Sunnmøre, Norway. It belongs to the Herøy municipality, in Møre og Romsdal county.

Skorpa lies directly west of the island of Nerlandsøya, across the Skorpesund. The terrain is steep and rugged, the highest point being Keipen at 431m. There are no longer any permanent residents on the island, and today Skorpa is best known for vacation cottages and the herd of wild goats that live there.

The farm Matrikkelgard on Skorpa has the Norwegian farm registration number 1.

[edit] Second World War

Skorpa was an important contact point for the Shetland bus and for other allied military traffic during the Second World War. The island served as a station for agents and resistance personnel both to meet and to hide. Instructors, weapons, and sabotage material were transported to the Norwegian resistance forces. For many who departed to Great Britain this was the last stop, just as it was the first stop for many agents on the way into Norway.

In 1940 retreating English soldiers were hidden here, before being evacuated to Shetland in fishing boats. 1941 was the first year that Norwegian boats covered the route between Norway and Shetland. Leif Larsen (popularly known as Shetland Larsen), a famous Shetland Bus captain, was the first captain on this route. On November 17, 1943 the KNM Hitr, a converted U.S. submarine chaser, began to cover the route, shortly joined by the MS Bergholm.

Most allied activities on the northern coast lasted only 7–8 months, but Skorpa operated throughout the war. German soldiers made many house-to-house inspections, but never found any illegal equipment such as radios. A number of the residents were notably active in the resistance, including Gerhard and Sina Skorpen, who departed to England under the cover that they had drowned. Gerhard afterwards became a crew member of another converted U.S. submarine chaser, the KNM Vigra, upon which Leif Larsen served as skipper. At the close of the war they returned to Skorpa.