The Shetland Bus: A WWII Epic of Escape, Survival, and Adventure

My father was stationed at Lerwick during WWII as a RNVR Sub officer, he was there two years. He took many photos, of which I have, of men in row boats with Fair Isle sweaters on. He was at HMS Fox, which throughout his life I thought was a ship, it was a little known base on the Shetland Isle. Dad told us of a time he was dropped off at an outcrop to report on German vessels in the area. When picked up he was taken back to a port in Ireland, as he had no identification he had trouble re-entering and a lot of explaining had to be done. My father won the DSC for being on a Corvette that sunk a U Boat. Patrick C. Cother was my dads name. I know he made friends in Lerwick, as I have photos of two ladies from the office there. One later contacted our dad to stand in at her mothers funeral, as he was the best friend they had. She also wrote to my mother suggesting mum give our dad a divorce as they were in love. Obviously mum, as a mother of three, ignored that request. I would of liked to contact the lady, but feel now it too late. The Shetland Bus book is the best ever I have read of real life as it was during WWII. I did send a letter off to the author.

Well written chronicle of the war effort against occupying Germany between Norway's underground and Great Britain's military. A handful of Norwegian fishing vessels armed and sailing the winter night arctic seas between a British Naval base in the Shetland Isles off Scotland and the German patrolled coast of Norway. Materials, refugees and trained underground fighters wer transported back and forth at great risk during the early 1940's. This was a little-known effort between these two countries that greatly stressed the people involved. These dangerous and difficult adventures did not mean a great deal in the big scheme of the war until the Norwegian underground played a key part in delaying Germanys efforts to produce atomic weapons. This German set-back helped end the war in Europe and allowed America to be the first nuclear power and to turn their attention to the war in the Pacific.

The Shetland Bus is a stand-out example of a World War II memoir penned shortly after the events by one of the participants. Unlike many such memoirs, Howarth himself plays the role of a supporting character, rather than leading man, but it is this humility and self-effacement that built the trust of the Norwegian irregulars who are the main subject of the book, and the source of much of the information in it. The fishermen turned spies and saboteurs who deliberately put themselves in harm's way time and time again are the true heroes of the book, along with the little boats that carried them through some of the worlds most stormy seas. I first read this book thirty years ago as a teenager, and Howarth's love of Norway and all things Norwegian proved infectious, as I made a beeline for many of the places mentioned in the book as soon as I was old enough to travel solo. The book has been out of print for many years, and it was with delight that I discovered this new edition that will make The Shetland Bus a new generation of friends and admirers. When the book arrived, I still found it worked its magic on me: I read it cover to cover in one flight from Atlanta to Dubai! After reading the Shetland Bus, those who wish to pursue the subject further may wish to read We Die Alone: A WWII Epic of Escape and Endurance which details one of the most daring operations, which sadly went wrong, with substantial loss of life, though it produced one of the great survival stories of the war.

This is quite a story about one of the little known on-going operations during WWII. Amazing what these Norwegean fishermen accomplished saving many lives at the expense of some of their own.

I've rarely been on a small boat on the ocean, I've never been to the Shetland Isles, and I wasn't on this planet during WW II. So, I found this book to be an interesting perspective that describes several years of a special operations group that supported Norway during the war. The book presents, rather drily at times, the stories of the men and ships who built the Shetland Bus operation -- from the time that they requisitioned and provisioned the ships and fishermen/sailors to the time when the wooden fishing ships were replaced with faster, more reliable submarine chasers.The glue that holds this book together is the adventures of the Norwegian sailors, as retold by Howarth after the debriefs of the crews. (Howarth was prevented from sailing by the British Navy so his only first-person perspectives are from the operations and shipyard management side of the picture.) In short, what makes this book real is the stories about the storms that they sailed through, the difficulties in getting their small vessels across the North Sea, and the narrow scrapes they had with the Germans when they entered the protected waters of the Norwegian fjordsIn summary, this is a marvelous account of a small but important operation. It could be improved by slightly more adventurous writing style but is definitely worth a read if you're interested in seafaring adventures or personal stories from the World War II era.