The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #174222   Message #4226492
Posted By: cnd
31-Jul-25 - 09:36 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Tatty Mob (Jim Radford)
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tatty Mob (Jim Radford)
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