By: David Haworth
Location: NF 920 HOW
Genre: Conflicts
From the author of We Die Alone, The Shetland Bus recounts the hundreds of crossings of small boats from the Shetland Islands to German-occupied Norway to supply arms to the Resistors and to rescue refugees--all under constant threat by German U-boats and winter storms.
“...though wars can still bring adventures which can stir the heart, their true nature is of innumerable personal tragedies, of grief, waste and sacrifice, wholly evil and not redeemed by glory.”
― The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure
Review by Peter
WWII seems to have been so overwhelmingly huge that I don't think I'll ever stop finding books that tell stories that surprise me. This one is the story of an undercover supply line between the Shetland islands and occupied Norway. Participants were Norwegian civilian fishermen and UK soldiers and sailors, including the author who was one of the commanders.
I continually had to remind myself that the Norwegians involved were not only volunteers, but were also civilians. These were patriots who wanted to see their country free of the German occupiers and would do anything to help, even something as seemingly small as transporting undercover agents in their fishing boats. Several crews were killed during these operations, yet the remaining crews never faltered in their commitment to the cause.
Stories told include a mission to sink the German battleship Tirpitz, the journey of a single survivor of a mission as he treks over the frozen Scandinavian ice and snow towards neutral Sweden, and descriptions of missions to drop off agents, weapons, and rescue partisans and those in danger of capture by the German secret police.
A briskly told story, the author gives the impression that it was all just a great adventure, but does end with a note explaining how deadly it truly was and how lucky he and the remaining crews were to survive the war.
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