Alrighty, if there's no other takers... I'll take a stab at transcribing it. A few spots I wasn't quite able to catch.
There are military historians who churn out books and tracts Who study war-time records, think they know the facts But there's still an untold story of the war upon the sea Because most of them have never heard of T124T
It was back in 1940 that the urgent order came Fast build a fleet of rescue tugs to bring the convoys home For Hitler's deadly U-boats were Churchill's greatest fear He knew if we could not defeat them that the end would soon draw near
And so a special naval service was created at great speed And secretly deployed to meet the desperate need And Campbeltown in Scotland and ?Harwich? to the east Became the war-time bases of T124T
And the Bustler and the Growler, Jaunty and Tenacity And many more just like them ?patrolled? on every sea They brought back crippled freighters and war-ships by the score And they made a crucial difference to the outcome of the war
Now the tug crews were recruited from men who knew the sea From the fishing fleets of Britain and the mercantile marine Sent to sea in naval uniform to do a dangerous job And that's why the pusser navy called us the Tatty Mob
But the Tatty Mob was seamen who knew the wind and waves They rescued many thousands from death and watery graves Three and a half million tons in shipping they brought back to the shore With their precious crews and cargos to sail and fight once more
And when the hunter-killer packs would seek destroy the ships by night With convoys being scattered to ???? The rescue tugs would steel towards the final ??????? Whether U-boats sometimes waited, that was anybody's guess
And any tugman had to leap aboard a sinking, burning ship To secure the ???? and heavy ??? while ?????? And ships were towed a thousand miles through deadly storms and gales With the ax man standing by in case she slipped beneath the waves
Yes, the Bustler and the Growler, Jaunty and Tenacity And many more just like them saved lives on every sea Many a sailor, many a soldier owed his life to such as these And they're the reason why the U-boats never brought us to our knees
And then in '44 at Normandy, the plan was ?half-assessed? That an artificial harbor was a schedule for success As great a feat of engineering as anyone had known But the Mulberry didn't get to Arromanche on its own
From D-Day on, for weeks on end, and working night and day A fleet of rescue tugs brought the Mulberry to play We towed the blokes ????? "You've turned the ????, fixed the roadways in between And we built the greatest harbor that the world has ever seen"
Yes, the Bustler and the Growler, Jaunty and Tenacity And many more just like them made naval history They built that mighty harbor and laid the Pluto pipeline well And without the Tatty Mob there'd be a different tale to tell
So remember when they talk to you about the war at sea That there's a chapter missing from the score of history The tugs we lost in total, they number 92 And the men who sailed and died in them deserve a mention too
Yes, the Bustler and the Growler, Jaunty and Tenacity They ??lie?? under the ocean of ships on every sea It's a shame they're not remembered, never asked to take a bow Because without the Tatty Mob, we'd all be speaking German now