The Shetland Bus operation may be considered successful in that it supplied Norwegian resistance movements with weapons and took many refugees from Norway to Shetland, and that it managed to bind just shy of 300,000 German troops in Norway. However, because of this operation, forty-four men lost their lives, and the Norwegian public may not have been too happy having a huge number of German men patrolling their country. It could have been due to this operation that D-Day was an Allied victory, and many other key areas throughout Western Europe could have been hugely affected by the influence of the Shetland Bus. This small operation, secret to almost everybody, could have played a major role in these battles, influencing the course of the entire war itself. This could be an exaggeration, but the implications of the operation may well have had an effect this big.

The German Invasion and Occupation of Norway

Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany during the Second World War on 9 April 1940, and its occupation ended on 8 May 1945. The Germans used Blitzkrieg tactics, and Operation Weserübung was carried by both land and sea. Although the first attack on Norway consisted only of around ten thousand men, the Norwegians weren't prepared and their country fell easily. Also, as Norway was a neutral country, it did not feel the need to keep a large armed force in the country. The Nazis wanted to capture Norway, and Denmark, in order to sever allied shipping connections and to secure iron-ore cargoes from Sweden. The first parachute company ever deployed took Oslo airfield and the troops that first entered the city marched behind a brass band. After two months of struggling, the Norwegians were forced to surrender, so the country was ruled by the Wehrmacht and civil rule was assumed by the ReichskommissariatNorwegen...