Out there is the North Sea. Now I know you ve heard stories
of Vikings braving its dangers, sailing west in open boats
medieval pirates adventuring to sail up estuaries and overturn the established order
but what do you know about the Vikings who sailed in the other direction to overthrow Hitler?
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In the meantime, let me tell you a story. You may think that the age of Vikings ended
with Harald Hadrada. There ll be people in
the comments section who bang on about Viking being a verb rather than a noun,
but I want to tell you about the daring Norse seamen of the 20th Century,
that braved North Sea waves and winter storms, who sailed through the dark of arctic night.
I want to tell you about a tiny band of Norwegians who tied down thousands of German troops.
I want to tell you about one of THE most decorated men in British military history
and he wasn t even British. In fact he wasn t even in the military
he was a Norwegian fisherman. If anyone was a Viking he was.
This is the story, that started in that house. It s the story of the Shetland Bus
I ve been making a series of videos for Promote Shetland
to tell you about some of the unique history and culture
of this archipelago of islands, and why you should come here.
I don t think there s a Shetland bus trail, but I kind of like the idea that there should be.
Maybe I can start one and if I did, I d start it here.
Kergord House was on the Flemington estate.
It s unusual for Shetland because it s surrounded in trees
and those trees concealed the headquarters of one of Britain s key clandestine operations of WW2.
Hitler s invasion of Norway in Spring 1940 led to a flood of refugees
not long lines of people walking European roads with worldly possessions on their backs,
but packed like sardines into small fishing boats across the north sea.
Many landed here in Shetland and in the winter of 1940 crews of some of
the fishing boats that had brought them, and who were refugees themselves
remember , were asked to return to deliver a passenger here , to
collect more refugees there. So a couple of dozen Norwegian
fishermen were recruited as civilian volunteers taking instructions form the British Navy.
I say instructions rather than orders, because as we travel the trail of the Shetland bus,
we have to rememberthat the people we re talking about weren t military,
but Norse patriots. Now Flemington here was
the headquarters, but this is no place for boats.
Although they tell me that nowhere in Shetland is more than three miles from the sea,
so let s head three miles in . that direction. Three miles from Flemington is Catfirth bay.
I believe the word for one of these inlets in Shetland is a Voe.
Scots will have heard of the oil terminal at Sullom Voe.
but this peaceful setting is stop two on my Shetland Bus Trail.
From this voe they launched spies and landed refugees.
They took on the worst of conditions in one of the harshest seas
because this close to the arctic circle venturing into German occupied waters in the near
permanent daytime of summer wasn t really an option.
The Germans had set a 50 mile limit to shipping around the Norwigian coast
that was covered by air patrols, and during the long days of summer
fishing boats sailing into those waters could easily be spotted from a distance and targeted.
But if they could cross that exclusion limit in darkness and get close to shore,
then they were just another Norwegian fishing boat sailing up and down the multitude of fjords.
So everything had to be done in winter darkness, chill and storm.
And during that first winter half a dozen fishing boats would sail
back and forward from this Voe into long night and wide ocean.
The advantage of this place is that it was a safe anchorage and out of the way.
It was close to the headquarters down the road, but there was no accommodation nearby and the
waters were a too shallow to be ideal. They needed an alternative
And this was it.. step three on the Shetland Bus trail
The waters were deeper, boats could be brought right up to the
pier at high tide, and whilst it was further from the headquarters than would have been ideal;
that remoteness brought its own advantage.
So, as autumn brought darkness the first mission of the new winter was sailed from here.
A 65-foot boat called the Aksel with a 100-horsepower engine would set off
across the North Sea. Its task was to deliver
a messenger just north of Bergen, where he would make contact with some Norwegian
army officers who had set up an underground. The messenger was to give them money
and organise a place to drop eight tons of sabotage equipment later.
When the boat didn t arrive back here in Lunna folks started to get nervous.
Days went by before the Aksel finally chugged into harbour decked out with heather and birch.
Apparently, having safely delivered their messenger they called in on a trusted contact,
but there was a dance in the village so they partied until their conscience
finally brought them back to base. What were they like?
As September rolled on the team here at Lunna were under pressure.
The British running the base and the Norwegians sailing the trips had already been given
double the missions that they expected. On one trip to drop off sabotage equipment
at a village called klandvaag. Now it seems like Norwigians like
to party through the winter, because when they arrived
there was another dance on, and they had to wait till the dance was over
so things were quiet enough to move the explosives.
Now the young sailors had been chosen specifically for this trip because they lived in the area,
and a young lad called Nils Nesse went ashore to visit his family ,
but he came back with an assortment of refugees who desperately needed to escape the Nazis.
They left klandvaag just before midnight on 27th October.
On their way over the weather had been bad, but now
it was blowing a hoolie on their starboard bow , so that by dawn they d only managed
50 miles from the Norwegian coast. Then, out of the dim morning light they saw a
twin engine aircraft flying north towards them. One crewman was in the chart house,
the engineer was in the engine room. The refugees were in the cabin with the remaining
crew except Nils Nesse, who was at the wheel. Before anyone could move the plane banked
round and bore down on the fishing boat. These little boats had been fitted with
detachable mounts for Bren guns, anti-tank rifles, and tommy guns.
But the sea had been so rough they d all been stowed away and lashed down.
As crew rushed to prepare the weapons the plane approached at mast height,
raking from astern with canon fire. As two of them reached the door of
the forecastle hatch it shattered in pieces as bullets ripped through it.
The refugees were screaming in the cabin as their luggage tossed to and fro.
But before the crew could get the guns up on deck the aircraft was on them for
a second time, firing from nose and tail. It swung round for a third run from the rear,
during which the ships engineer emptied a tommy gun magazine in its direction.
Straight away it turned in a wide circle and disappeared back towards the shore.
All this time Nils Nesse had stayed at the wheel.
They saw him fall... head and leg wounds.
One of the refugees was a nurse. She bandaged his wounds as best she could,
and they carried him to a bunk. He died an hour later.
A day later they sailed into Lerwick Nils Nesse was the first of these
civilian Norwegian seamen to lose his life. He was younger than my children are today.
They say it was a calm, sunny winter s morning
when the funeral party gathered at this church below the base at Lunna.
There was no minister to perform the service in Norwegian,
but the young men wept as a Scottish service they couldn t understand was read.
Nils Nesse was laid to rest here. The last post was played ,
then one croaking voice started the Norwegian national anthem and the whole band of comrades,
compatriots, countrymen raised their voices, filling the voe as the noise filled the sound.
Things had just changed but there were more changes to come
Lunna had been great for lots of reasons, not least the secrecy of a remote location.
Given that a disadvantage of Lunna was ready access to repair facilities and supplies
and by now there was no hiding the fact that a group of boisterous, well paid Norwegian
fishermen who wanted to let off steam when they weren t carrying out dangerous undercover work
were living on a relatively small island Everyone in Norway knew about this top-secret
service and had coined it the Shetland Bus
it made sense to move operations to the next place on my Shetland Bus trail Scalloway.
This building here had been a loft for repairing fishing nets
but it now became the barracks for our fisherman spies.
They continued with their daring missions, but as the Germans felt the impact of the
Shetland Bus, they were more and more determined to stop it.
Gone were the halcyon days of midnight dances and sailing home with heather on your bows.
Damage to boats became frequent, and keeping boats at sea more and more challenging.
A proper boatyard and insomniac shipbuilder was needed.
Jack Moor of William Moore and Son was just the man .
Along with Norwegian engineers and boatbuilders that had managed to escape the Nazis,
they worked to keep the small fleet afloat. This yard is still here in Scalloway.
I can just imagine Norwegian fisherman arriving here to be briefed like in a James Bond movie.
Now we ve made some improvements to the mark 5 double o Sven.
Pay attention as I talk you through the new bren gun mountings hidden in the oil cans,
the explosives that look like salted fish and the one-man subs stowed underneath the hull
But what they really needed was a slipway for below water repairs.
They were told they could have one, if they could do it themselves for 750
They found a second-hand winch on a hill in Fair isle, between Orkney and Shetland.
It was lying unused on a hilltop and would cost the owner more to get it down
than he cold sell it for. All they needed was sturdy Vikings to move it.
The same Viking brawn extricated a derelict slipway
from the old sailing days on the east of Shetland
and didn t seem to belong to anyone until they d cemented it in place here.
Then it turned out some old bloke did own the archaic, unused trophy, and wanted paid.
They got an engine out of an old, wrecked fishing boat to wind the winch,
and some disused rails from Aberdeen. By the time they were finished it all, they
could take a bird to the pictures get a poke of chips on the way home
and still have enough change to build that that metal pier behind me.
The Slipway was named after Olav the crown prince of Norway,
who came to visit in the October and declare it open.
There s a plaque here to commemorate the event.
In addition to the Prince, Leif Larsen is specifically named.
Remember at the start I told you about the man highly decorated with British medals,
but he was neither British or in the military? Leif Larsen
He was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal twice
the Distinguished Service Cross and the Distinguished Service Order
They tell me that no other person, British or foreign has received this
array of British military honours. I m also told he should have been
awarded the Victoria cross but wasn t, because the operation came under the
secretive Special Operations Executive rather than traditional forces.
He was some boy. Oh and he got some Norwegian medals as well.
Scalloway was now the main hub for these Norwegian freedom fighters.
I think it s important to reiterate that they weren t British Navy,
they weren t Norwegian Navy. The Norwegian Navy made a less
than successful attempt to incorporate them later on, but they were civilian volunteers,
so any discipline couldn t be imposed, but came from their own courage and love of country.
I ll be honest there s more to see on this Shetland Bus Trail than I have time for.
Further down the street is their Scalloway headquarters building, then Scalloway Castle,
who s dungeons were used for storing the explosives.
Right next to that is Scalloway Museum
with more stories of these heroes than I can fit in.
There are so many tales about the adventures of the men of the Shetland bus:
quick witted evasion of German surveillance; THE most incredible story of endurance escape
in winter over fjord and mountain trail; bravery of fellow Norwegians protecting them;
shame of others who didn t. There was also the incredible
mission launched from Lunna to sink the German battleship Turpitz in a Norwegian fjord no less.
Now that is a story and you ll find it in the book,
The Shetland Bus by David Howarth Get it from Shetland Times Press.
Casualties mounted using these little fishing boats,
Thankfully after a couple of years the team were resupplied with modern
well equipped sub chasers from the USA ,
after which there were no more deaths of Shetland busmen.
Around a hundred patriotic Norse seamen had helped to tie down
two hundred and eighty four thousand German troops in Norway.
They transported over four hundred tons of arms and explosives to resistance fighters,
delivered scores of agents and radio operators, rescued thousands of refugees, delivered numerous
Norwegians from the hands of the Gestapo, and gave Norway hope
that there would always be a ticket for a Shetland Bus.
But of those 100 Shetland Busmen, in the first couple of years of the war,
over 40% of them gave their lives in its service.
Some fighting unforgiving storms, some battling German troops on shore,
some disappeared en route to prisoner of war camps they never reached.
They re all memorialised here in Scalloway.
When I was given the task of selling a visit to Shetland to my history loving viewers,
I couldn t think of anything I d rather do.
In the four videos I ve made I ve only scratched the surface of what Shetland has to offer...
but remember it s not all Neolithic, Iron Age or Viking settlements.
When you come , spear a thought for the 20th Century Vikings who fought Hitler.
Come here and remember them as you follow the Shetland Bus Trail.
There s another video about Shetland coming up on screen now.
In the meantime