Memories of the War - Sgt Fred Reeve

Sgt Frederick Thomas Reeve

Frederick Thomas Reeve (my father) was born on 23rd June 1920 in Holly Bank, Somerleyton Road, Oulton Village, near Lowestoft, Suffolk. He was the only son of Major and Mrs Frederick Garnham Reeve. Major Reeve was in the Royal Engineers. From the age of 16, my father worked for the railway in an administrative position.

He signed up with the army in 1939 and did his training. However, partway through the training he caught rheumatic fever and was in hospital for a few months. On discharge from the hospital, his health rating was Grade C3, not A1 anymore - as he was when he joined up. He was no longer fit enough to join his battalion abroad.

My parents married in March 1945, just before the end of the war. Following their wedding, they went to Cornwall for a few days, after which Fred returned to the Shetlands and my mother returned to her family's home in Romford, Essex.

In view of his good administrative skills, he was posted to the Shetland Islands to work as a Special Operations Executive (SOE). He was based in Scalloway on the southwest side of the Shetlands. There were a lot of soldiers based on the islands for defence purposes, but my father was part of a very small team engaged in secret operations with the Norwegians. The Shetland Islands are in fact quite close geographically to Norway and only separated by a stretch of the North Sea. During the winter, there are about 20+ hours of darkness - perfect for secret missions back and forth between Norway and the Shetlands in small boats.

He was billeted in an ordinary house and mixed with other soldiers and locals quite freely. However, no one knew quite what work the 6 or so soldiers living in the house were actually engaged in. Norway was under German occupation. There was an active resistance movement within Norway, but they needed help. The British army based in Scalloway provided that help.

My father, being a good administrator, organised the supply of radios, sabotage equipment and other resources needed for the resistance movement, to be transported to and from Norway. He also organised transport between Norway and Shetland for spies and other endangered personnel. These had to be very secret missions, which is why SOE personnel were involved.

They used small fishing boats to make the necessary crossings, and this had to be done, wherever possible under the cover of darkness. The fishing boats were equipped with a basic amount of defence - guns and camouflage, in case they were spotted and attacked. The boat runs were made mainly during the winter months when the hours of darkness were the longest - Shetland and Norway have maximum darkness then, and maximum daylight during the summer. However, the hours of the longest darkness are also the times of the worst weather and heaviest seas. Many of the small boats were lost on these crossings, along with many lives.

After the USA joined the war, the American government gave the Shetlands and Norway larger ships to make the crossings and the small boats were no longer used.

My father had signed the Official Secrets Act and kept to that vow to his death in 1994. He never spoke to us about his work with SOE, or about his time in Shetland. This information has been learned from a book called 'The Shetland Bus' by David Howarth. I gained more information by visiting the Scalloway Museum and speaking to the curator Bill Moore. In the museum, there is a large section on the work done between Norway and Shetland.