BBC World Service - Witness History, World War Two's Shetland Bus

BBC World Service - Witness History focuses on the Shetland Bus, a wartime operation tied to Norway’s resistance during World War Two. After escaping Nazi occupation, Norwegian sailors established a base in the Shetland Islands and began helping the resistance. Using fishing boats, they carried out perilous North Sea crossings to smuggle agents, equipment and ammunition into Norway, with Leif Larsen presented as the best-known skipper. The program describes how Larsen completed more than 50 trips to and from occupied Norway and became one of the most highly decorated naval officers of the war. Witness History, hosted through Tim O’Callaghan, tells the story using archive interviews with Larsen from 1981 and 1985. It also places the episode within the wider series that examines significant events—from major wartime moments to scientific and cultural milestones—using eyewitness accounts and archival materials.