''Suicide Mission'' is a 1954 British-Norwegian

war film War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been strongly associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war fi ...

directed by

Michael Forlong Michael Forlong (1912–2000) was a New Zealand writer, producer and director. He worked for the New Zealand National Film Unit before moving to England.John O’Shea, ‘A Charmed Life: Fragments of Memory..and Extracts from Conversations’ in F ...

. It was also known as ''Shetlandsgjengen''. The film was based on historian

David Howarth David Ross Howarth (born 10 November 1958) is a British academic and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Cambridge from 2005–10. He served as an Electoral Commissioner between 2010 and 2018. He is Professor of L ...

's 1951 book ''The Shetland Bus''.

Plot

The true story of the

Shetland bus The Shetland Bus (Norwegian Bokmål: ''Shetlandsbussene'', def. pl.) was the nickname of a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Mainland Shetland in Scotland and German-occupied Norway from 1941 until the su ...

, the clandestine traffic across the

North Sea The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian S ...

from

German-occupied Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi Germany controlled Norway until the ...

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. A small group of Norwegian sailors loosely connected to the British

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

take refugees from Norway to Shetland in small

fishing boat A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to catch fish in the sea, or on a lake or river. Many different kinds of vessels are used in commercial, artisanal and recreational fishing. The total number of fishing vessels in the world in 2016 was es ...

s, equipped only with

small arms A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes c ...

to protect themselves from German aircraft and patrol boats. The film is closely based on real events, and many of the members of the group, including the leader, known as "Shetlands-Larsen", play themselves. The script was written by Øystein Brekke.

Cast

Leif Larsen Leif Andreas Larsen DSO, DSC, CGM, DSM and Bar (9 January 1906 – 12 October 1990), popularly known as "Shetlands Larsen", was a highly decorated Norwegian sailor. He was arguably the most famous of the men who operated the Shetland bus esca ...

as himself * Palmar Bjørnøy as himself * Anthony Oliver as the narrator * Johannes Kalve as himself * William Enoksen as himself * Odd Hansen as himself * Finn Clausen as himself * Gunnar Klausen as himself * Harald Albertson as himself * Carsten Johnsen as himself * Karl Johan Aarsæther as himself * Sigvald Fivelsdal as himself * Paul Kråknes as himself * Øivind Steinsvåg as himself * Johan Haldorsen as himself * Willy Rye Andersen as himself * Helge W. Fonneland as himself *

Michael Aldridge Michael William ffolliott Aldridge (9 September 1920 – 10 January 1994) was an English actor. He was known for playing Seymour Utterthwaite in the television series ''Last of the Summer Wine'' from 1986 to 1990 and he had a long career as a ...

as a British naval officer * T.W. Southam as British admiral *

Per Skift Per Skift (born ''Per Anker Christensen'', May 10, 1920 – January 10, 1994) was a Norwegian actor. Skift made his stage debut in 1944 at Chat Noir in Oslo. He was then engaged with the Oslo New Theater, Trøndelag Theater, and Rogaland Theate ...

as Bård Grotle * Oscar Egede-Nissen as Peter Salen * Atle Larsen as Johan * Torborg Schønberg as an old lady * Haakon Særsten as a home front man * Mona Levin as Carla, a Jewish refugee

Production

The film reportedly only cost £25,000.Suicide Mission "(Shetlandsgjengen)" Monthly Film Bulletin; London Vol. 24, Iss. 276, (Jan 1, 1957): 67.

References

External links

*
''Shetlandsgjengen''
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

1954 films 1950s war drama films Norwegian war drama films Norwegian black-and-white films British war drama films British black-and-white films History of Shetland Films directed by Michael Forlong 1950s English-language films 1950s British films {{Norway-film-stub

Plot

Cast

Production

See also

References

External links