[Targan]

Currently reading The Shetland Bus by David Howarth, originally published in 1951 by Thomas Nelson and Sons (although the version I'm reading is a new edition published in 1998 by The Shetland Times Ltd and reprinted five times since then).

The book details the exploits of a combined RN/British Army/volunteer civilian operation to smuggle agents, armaments, ordnance and other materiel into German-occupied Norway during WWII, and returning with civilian refugees and Norwegian military personnel wanting to receive additional training and return to the fight.

They used 50 to 80 foot Norwegian fishing vessels crewed by volunteer Norwegian fishermen and merchant navy veterans to make their runs, armed as best as they practically could, and restricted their voyages to the winter months to take advantage of the extended periods of darkness. These guys surely must have had gonads of solid steel. Imagine sailing from the Shetland Islands to the Norwegian coast, in the howling gales of winter, in wooden fishing boats, over and over and over again, for the majority of the war.

The author was a Lt Cdr in the RN and was the 2IC of the operation. He seems to have been a very humble and modest man and his writing style is concise and easy to read. The book is liberally interspersed with maps and black and white photographs. For those with an interest in the lesser-known allied operations of the war I can't recommend this book highly enough.