Buzz Smith, a friend of my singing partner Neil Downey (of Finn & Haddie) wrote this song about 20yrs ago without ever putting a tune to it, so it just laid around. Neil just recently found it after all those yrs & now we've just started singing it to Neil's tune.
There was a thread some where about this convoy of WWII coal colliers called CW-9 but I can't seem to unearth it.

CW-9 (words, Buzz Smith, tune Neil Downey)

On the 7th of August a convoy set out
As evening fell over the Thames
Through Dover Straits was their perilous route
CW-9 was their name
Twenty Coast Colliers, nine ships of the line
Were sent to that hell on the sea
With a cargo that could've been carried by rail
Just to prove that the channel was free

Chorus:
The Admiralty said "it's a mater of pride
We don't give a damn for your coal"
Then sent them all off for a bloody good ride
Where the E-Boats & Stukas patrolled

As the cloudy dawn broke the 1st E-Boats appeared
To strike with torpedo & shell
And when back to France the Bosch bastards had steered
Six ships had been blown all to hell
Three of them crippled, their hulls badly holed
Three more to the bottom had dived
And still trapped below with their cargo of coal
All the brave men who needlessly died

Chorus

In the gloomy mid-morning the Stukas rained down
With Messerschmitts guarding their tail
But Spitfires & Hurricanes gave them no ground
Through lead rained around them like hail
Jerry kept coming until at mid-day
They broke through the cover at last
And in ten minutes flat to the Convoy's dismay
Eleven of the Colliers were smashed

Chorus

It was evening before the sad slaughter was o'er
For Jerry kept at them all day
And many brave sailors lay dead in their gore
Or drowned in a watery grave
When into Swanage they limped with the tide
Four Colliers were all that remained
The rest were the victims of the Admiralty's pride
Shot to hell or lying under the Main

Chorus

They bombed them, they starfed they, they blew them aside
While the blood & the coal mixed with brine
T'was a hell of a price for the Admiralty's pride
That was paid by CW-9


I guess that this song would fit in either a merchant navy or a navy catagory.

Wonderful thread

Barry