Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Shetland Bus" is the story of the British/Norwegian operation to run supplies, ammunition, weapons and secret agents from the Shetland Islands to Norway during WW2. Rescued refugees took the return trip. These efforts were key to the Norwegian resistance to the German occupation, which tied down 10 divisions and 280,000 enemy troops.
Author Howarth was well placed to write SB. He was the number 2 British Naval man in the Shetlands and had a key hand in each mission. He was obviously as close to his men as a good commander can be and writes touchingly, respectfully and personally about his charges. We learn of close escapes from the treacherous weather, quislings and the persistent, if over stretched, German authorities. If his men were in trouble, they could -and did- die in minutes in the icy North Sea, far from shore or any hope of rescue. The author lends the reader an appreciation for the sheer logistical strains behind the Shetland Bus. Balancing people, personalities, supplies, and technical details was a demanding job- one, which the author plainly relished. He was a talented writer, producing 18 historical works, several of which are available on amazon.com.
The weak side to SB is that Howarth was shoreside throughout the war. The action here is all second hand and the telling suffers. Howarth simply wasn't there. He was hundreds of miles from the action. Since this book first appeared in 1951, one gets the distinct impression that, so close to the War's end, some censorship of classified information may have been imposed. Something or someone may have held Howarth back. SB is hard to rate. Out of respect for the author, his obvious writing talent and his men: 4 stars. Amazon.com fans may wish to scroll through Howarth's (apparently) better-received WW2 efforts; "Sledge Patrol" or especially "We Die Alone". I'll end on a positive note: Here is one military book with decent maps! Hooray!

An interesting story of the operation of anti-Nazi forces in Norway during World War II. Howarth was the Royal Navy officer responsible for coordinating activities with Norwegian fishermen during this time. The stories represent the resistance Norwegians provided the Nazis and Quislings in Norway. Howarth was not allowed to go to Norway because of the dangerous activites, but his account is first hand, so I discount the previous reviewers assertion that this book is not truthful enough. From the previous reviewer's viewpoint, we can't trust any second or third party accounts. Well, Howarth was there and interacted with these resistance fighters, so that is good enough for most readers.
The Shetlands are a remote island group of the United Kingdom. Howarth provides some details of the history of the region, and the geographic detail. Then the stories of ferrying supplies and spies to German occupied Norway. These stories are interesting, but not as interesting as the shoot ups I read about in some other Howarth books (We Die Alone, The Sledge Patrol, D-Day -June 6, 1944). Howarth is a great author, and I have read eight of his books. Anybody wanting to read good history should read his books. It is a shame of his recent passing, because I will soon run out of books written by him.

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 fjords

In 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.

This is about the British effort to provide boats to move people between England (from the Shetland Isles) to Norway and back. Primarily agents, guns, and supplies to Norway and agents at risk back out.

The author writes well and he does a good job of telling the stories of what the Norwegians went through in Norway. That part is written in a less immediate form as the author was not there and is relating the story to us.

It's an interesting sidebar to the war. And the book is well written. But that is all it is. It's a sidebar that while important, was not critical to the strategic effort (although many in Norway might disagree). And while well written, the book does not reach out and grab you.

So I'm glad I read it. But there are other books that I would have enjoyed more that I could have read instead.

Howarth's 'Shetland Bus' was interesting but not gripping. As compared to Howarth's 'We Die Alone'. I could not put down 'We Die Alone', it was a compelling story of human strength, human nature, and love for freedom. I could feel the cold wind, ice, snow, hunger... Wow, what a story. A must read for all to understand what the fighters who go to war may have to endure. Being a veteran of war, I think that many people do not have an understanding of the sacrifices and perhaps the ultimate sacrifice veterans make. A must read.

This book chronicles the efforts of the British to use Norwegian fishing boats and fishermen based in the Shetland Islands to deliver supplies and personnel to Norway and evacuate people from Norway. This is a first person account by a British Officer, who assisted in the organization of this effort.

This is an intesting story full of anecdotes, but not a history in the purest sense of these efforts. It is never really explained what the Shetland Bus had to do with the overall war effort and how it furthered these ends (read Assault in Norway for a work by this author that succeeds in this way). This is a small war, one of many prosecuted by the Allies against Germany in WWII. There are no great war-turning moments here, just ordinary people doing extraordinary things with great courage to make the war a little tougher for the Nazis in Norway. As is the case of the small war efforts, the sum of all these efforts amount to something far more than the pieces. This is worth a read.

Howarth tells the story that reminds me of the Underground Railroad and Harriet Tubman.

Only these were Norwegian seaman and fisherman using their small boats to constantly sail from Shetland Iles to Norway, while trying to avoid the watchful eye of the Germans, to land weapons and supplies and to rescue refugees during the occupation of Norway.

Many of the places Howarth speaks of can be seen today on the internet along with the mention that they were all very much aware of the Shetland Bus.

Another vivid journey is Howarth's "Dawn of D-Day".

Always an interesting quick read from this author. Not his best but still a nice easy and interesting read . I enjoyed it.

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.