Shetland Islands & The Secret Missions Against Germany: Shetland Bus Located on the northern most portion of Scotland. The island chain comprises 100 islands, however only 16 are inhabited.
When the Vikings started using the island chain as a staging ground for raids on Scotland and Norway, the Norwegian ruler, King Harald Hårfagre annexed the islands and Orkney as well.
In the 10th century the island chain would be converted to Christianity, as their option was death.
Norway ruled over the islands until the middle of the twelfth century when King Alexander the 2nd of Scotland decided to start taking control of islands close the Scottish mainland.
The Scottish and Norwegians would fight to a stalemate and an eventual peace treaty with the signing of the Treaty of Perth in 1266. As a result, Scottish influence increased in Orkney and the Northern Shetland Islands for the next century until full absorption by Scotland’s King James the 3rd in 1472.
The islands would grow to a population of over 30,000 in the 19th century as a trading and fishing area. And by the outbreak of World War 2 had people with genetic backgrounds that were roughly half and half Norwegian and Scottish.
With such a genetic makeup, the island chain was especially upset with the German invasion and capture of Norway. The Norwegian Royal Family would flee to the UK and covert clandestine missions would occur between the Shetland Islands and Norway.
This link provided a valuable resource the British and produced some of the most daring and courageous covert acts of World War 2. In fact, the operation’s leader would be the most decorated allied naval officer in World War 2, furthermore the operations would be named the “Shetland Bus.”
Of course not really a bus, but fishing trawlers with concealed machine guns in oil drums. Ships that went back and forth from the Shetland Islands to Norway assisting the Norwegian uprising. Moreover, these occurred under the cover of darkness in stormy northern seas with the additional risk of German patrols. The operation would be headquartered out of the Shetland Islands’ largest town, Scalloway.
Eventually the Shetland Bus operation would add 3 submarine chasers to the fleet, Vigra, Hessa and Hitra.
The US would build the 3 submarine chasers and deliver them to Rosneath where US crewmembers trained exiled Norwegian navy members who had joined Shetland Bus on how to operate the ships. The ships would perform 114 covert missions to Norway without one incident, besides friendly fire from a Canadian plane.
After the war the ships would perform coast guard duties until their mothballing and eventual scrapping in 1959.
US Admiral Harold R. Stark, commander of US Naval Forces Europe who had ordered the ships for the Shetland Bus would say about the operation:
