The WWII Dog Who Rode the Bus Alone to Fetch Sailors

Every evening in wartime Scotland, a St Bernard climbed onto a public bus by himself, rode it into town, and walked straight into the pubs looking for Norwegian sailors who had missed curfew. He had his own bus pass clipped to his collar to prove he was allowed to travel alone. His name was Bamse, and he outranked most of the men he was rounding up.

An Official Member of the Crew

Bamse was bought as a puppy in Oslo by Captain Erling Hafto, master of the Norwegian whale-catcher Thorodd.

When Germany invaded Norway in 1940, Thorodd was drafted into the Royal Norwegian Navy as a coastal patrol vessel, and Bamse went with it.

On 9 February 1940, he was formally enrolled as an official crew member of the ship.

When Norway fell that June, Thorodd was one of 13 Norwegian naval vessels that escaped across the North Sea to Britain, where it was refitted as a minesweeper and based in Montrose and Dundee, Scotland.

The Dog Who Rode the Bus Alone

Bamse quickly became famous around the harbor towns for a habit nobody had trained him to do.

The crew fitted him with a bus pass on his collar, and he would board the local bus by himself, ride into Dundee, and head straight for the Bodega Bar, a favorite haunt of off-duty Norwegian sailors.

If a crewman had lost track of time, Bamse would nose him out and herd him back toward the ship before he missed curfew.

Townsfolk grew used to the sight of a St Bernard riding public transport alone, several stops, with nobody accompanying him.

A Hero at Sea

Bamse's job was not only morale.

The crew built him a custom steel helmet, which he wore while standing at the ship's forward gun tower during action.

He also stepped in twice when it mattered most.

He once saved a young lieutenant commander who was attacked by a man wielding a knife, rising up on his hind legs and pushing the attacker into the sea.

On another occasion, he pulled a sailor who had fallen overboard back toward shore, dragging him to safety.

Norway's Most Famous War Dog

Bamse died of heart failure on the dockside at Montrose on 22 July 1944 and was buried with full military honors.

Hundreds of Norwegian sailors, Allied servicemen, schoolchildren, and townsfolk from Montrose and Dundee turned out for his funeral.

His fame only grew after the war.

In 2006, the Duke of York unveiled a larger-than-life bronze statue of Bamse on Montrose's Wharf Street, sculpted by Alan Herriot, and that same year the PDSA awarded him its Gold Medal, the animal equivalent of the George Cross.

He remains the only World War II animal ever to receive it.