Lyceum of Martial and Societal Antediluvian Chronicles
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The SAMS Lyceum of Martial and Societal Antediluvian Chronicles An addendum to The SAMS Sporran Scottish History The Shetlandsbusse You have heard of Shetland sheepdogs and Shetland ponies or maybe even the Shetland cattle. You know the ones with long horns and even longer hair. What about Shetland sheep? If you have sheepdogs you must have sheep for them to herd. Shetland also has geese and ducks. Unfortunately there are no Shetland pigs; they have been extinct since 1930. You might even know it was formerly known as Zetland. But have you ever heard of the Shetland Bus? There were no tokens or passes, no transfer stops, no local or express buses There were no tokens or passes, no transfer stops, no local or express buses. Shy, apprehensive and wary of other seaborn strangers,The Shetland Bus preferred the secure solitude of the open sea. Like the pig, The Bus is now extinct. It’s home was the perilous,foggy, storm ridden waters of the North Sea. It lived in relative obscurity from 1939 to 1945. It spent most of its life traveling along the coastline of either Shetland or Norway. Unlike most Scottish mythical sea creatures it didn’t prey on hapless people who fell into the frigid waters. It rescued them and carried them safely to land. You see the Shetland Bus wasn’t a creature at all, but a cadre of brave men who sailed their fishing boats to Nazi occupied Norway to rescue hunted Norwegiens or to drop off needed supplies. The Shetlands (in box) Norway (East) The UK (South) When The National Socialists (NAZI) invaded Norway it put Shetland within easy flying range of Nazi Luftwaffe. It also meant that both The Orkney and The Shetland Islands could be used as staging areas for land invasions of Great Britain. Since the British Home Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow, Orkney that made it unlikely to become a staging area. Shetland, however, did not share that distinction. In Novemebr 1939, six Nazi Heinkel Bombers flew over Lerwick Harbor on a bombing mission. Although they only sank a flying boat it alerted both the islanders and the British military to the impending threat. The British response was manifold. First they fortified Lerwick and other places around Shetland. Artillery guns were positioned around Lerwick to protect the harbour approaches and anti aircraft guns were also deployed in Lerwick and the towns of Scalloway, Sumburgh and Sullom Voe. Then important buildings had sandbag walls built to protect them from bomb blasts.Runways were created at Sumburgh and Scatsta for Spitfire and Hurricane fighters to be based there to defend Shetland from air attack. Sullom Voe was converted into a base for flying boats. Finally, boatloads of soldiers began arriving. At the height of operations in Shetland, some 20,000 service men were stationed there, easily outnumbering the local residents. Also seeking shelter in Shetland were many Norwegian fishing boats and their crews that had escaped Nazi controlled Norway. These men had a vast storehouse of information about the waters surrounding Norway. This could prove invaluable to Allied planners in their defense of Great Britain and a possible invasion to free Norway.Their knowledge and their boats were put to use transporting supplies to the Norwegian resistance groups and rescuing Norwegians endangered by the Nazis. When the Nazis invaded Norway many Norwegian soldiers went “underground” to avoid capture and tried to resist the invaders. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill created a secret organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), to organize work behind enemy lines and train these groups of soldiers to conduct irregular warfare operations and act as Norwegian commandos. This is how the ‘Shetland Bus’ came into being. The fishing boats were crewed by Norwegian sailors who knew the waters like the back and front of their hands. Their knowledge was rooted in many years fishing off the coasts of Greenland and Iceland. This knowledge served them well as they now sailed during the winter months when the nights were dark the seas were rough and stormy making the sailing difficult. But what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander and there were fewer Nazi patrol boats or aeroplanes to deal with. Even still they had to sail with onboard blackout conditions. Their deep seated knowledge of the Norwegian coastline was invaluable as the Nazis controlled the lighthouses and other navigational aids. Each sailor knew the route from memory and their local knowledge enabled them to distinguish man made alterations in the landscape, ie: a sentry or some kind of a new fixture designed to watch the coast. Initially, 14, small agile 50- to 70-foot fishing boats were used and they were completely defenseless, camouflage was their only defense on these unassisted excursions. A typical, fishing boat would have bunks for six or eight men in the forecastle, and two in the small cabin aft. The hold amidships could carry eight or ten tons of small arms and explosives camouflaged under fish, of course. The wheelhouse was built on top of the engine casing and usually had a small chart-room opening off it, and a galley was located behind it. A Typical Shetland Bus The first voyage of the Shetland Bus occurred on 30 August 1941. The boat was called The Aksel and was skippered by August Nærøy. He was bound for the Norwegian city Bergen to rescue refugees. It was successful. Probably the most famous of the Shetland skippers was Leif Larsen, nicknamed Shetlands Larsen. In all he made 52 trips across The North Sea to Norway some of them hundreds of miles long and 3 weeks in duration. He became the most highly decorated Allied naval officer of the Second World War. One harrowing adventure proved just how dangerous operating the Shetland Bus actually was. He was captaining the ship, Bergholm, on a run into Traena, Norway. After they had dropped off their cargo and were returning to Shetland, the ship was attacked by two German planes. The attack killed six of the eight men aboard. Leif and the other survivor, Nils Vika, got into a lifeboat and began rowing for Aalesund, the closest port. It would take four days to get there and Nils would not survive the trip. Leif was the only survivor and was picked up by an MTB (motor torpedo boat) and taken back to Shetland. Occasionally, the Bus took a more aggressive approach. The Bus took part in attacks on German forces. One such operation in which The Bus was involved was in a raid on Måløy, a Norwegian town held by the Germans. The purpose of the attack was to win back the town and eliminate enemy strongpoints on Måløy Island and Holvik. They were successful, and the raid prompted Hitler to reroute 30,000 of his forces to Norway and upgrade his coastal and inland defenses as he feared the British might invade Europe through Norway. In another such operation The Bus dropped off a group of British Commandos on the Lofoten Islands of Norway. Again Hitler sent more troops to Norway and by 1944 there were 370,000 German soldiers stationed throughout the country. Another attack on 31 October 1942, was a genuine David versus Goliath adventure. It saw a 60 foot long fishing boat, The Arthur, going against the almost invincible German battleship Tirpitz, anchored up Trondheimsfjorden. The Tirpitz was 823 feet in length, weighed an intimidating 42,000 tons with 8-15 inch guns, 16-4 inch, and 16-1.5 inch secondary guns along with 58-1 inch anti-aircraft guns and 8-21inch torpedo tubes. The Kriegsmarine Tirpitz The wee Arthur had 2 two man “torpedoes” called chariots. These chariots were actually two man submersibles. The crew wore wet suits and used air tanks when they were exposed to the underwater elements. On the front of the chariot was a detachable warhead.Their mission was to close within a few hundred yards of the Tirpitz, submerge and steer the chariot below the Tirpitz. Leave the chariot, unscrew the warhead and set a time fuse, attach it to the bottom of the Tripitz using magnets, return to the chariots and then escape. The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang agley. A few miles from The Tirpitz a huge storm blew up and the chariots broke free. The mission had to be terminated. The crew escaped the German forces by going across the border into Sweden, losing only one man. As the German coastal defenses improved it became obvious that faster vessels were necessary for the safe continuation of the operation. In October 1943, the US Navy transferred three submarine chasers called Hitra, Vigra, and Hessa to The Shetland Bus. These ships were armed and fast; 22 knots, 17 at cruising speed. These boats were able to make more than 100 trips between Shetland and Norway with no loss of life or ships. By the end of the war, all the ships and submarine chasers in The Shetland Bus had completed a total of 198 trips, and Leif Larsen had carried out 52 of them. A Typical Sub Chaser There is a museum at Scalloway that features a permanent exhibition of the Shetland Bus. In 2001, the Scalloway Community Council decided that a permanent memorial to the 10 boats and 44 men that were lost during the war was long overdue. This memorial was finally unveiled in 2003 by Barbara Melkevik of Scalloway and Norway, one of several Shetland women who married Norwegians during the war. It is crafted of stones from Shetland and Norway.