The Shetland Bus Operation with Bill Moore

Hello and welcome to episode 19 of the podcast. Today we have a very special guest and a fascinating topic to explore. Today I welcome Bill Moore, a local historian, to speak to us about the history of the Shetland Bus which was an undercover operation between Shetland and Nazi-occupied Norway during the Second World War. It’s a fascinating episode and I really enjoyed taking a deeper look into this period of our history with Bill.

On the show, we discuss many elements of the operation, including its roots and some of the early missions that took place. We look at the locations that were used locally and a few of the men who were key figures in the resistance movement.

The early days of the operation saw equal amounts of tragedy and success, and we speak about some of the harrowing stories from a few of these risky missions, including the story of the Blia, Axel and Bergholm.

In 1943 the operation changed with the arrival of three sub-chasers, gifted from the United States. We talk about how this changed the operation and how, today, we still remember the events of the Shetland Bus at the Scalloway Museum.

Links:
David Howarth’s The Shetland Bus
Tony Insall’s Secret Alliances
The 12th Man trailer to the film
Scalloway Museum