"So how would you characterize how the sailors in the CW-9 convoy would have felt (those who survived) after their experience? Or wouldn't you care to speculate?"

I can only go by what my relatives, who went through similar experiences told me, which was simply this - There was a job to do and you did it. For most who sailed in CW-9 I would imagine that they felt relieved to have come through it.

As to the song, if you are going to write a song about an event that has happened and about which all facts are known, then you at least owe it to those who died to get those facts right. In this case that has patently not been done and the whole thing is a complete fiction and a distortion of what actually happened.

1. Realistically or practically the cargo of twenty ships could not have been sent by rail.

2. In 1940, considering the situation overall and the limited resources available, there is no way on Gods earth that the British Authorities would have deliberately risked 28 ships just to prove that "the Channel was free" the contention is ludicrous

3. While the Admiralty was responsible for organising and escorting convoys they did not direct where they were sent - that would have been the responsibility of the Ministry of Supply.

4. Losses on CW-9 from the crews of all those ships amounted to 20 men (5 from "Holme Force"; 5 from "Fife Coast"; 5 from "Empire Crusader"; 4 from the "Ajax" and 1 from HMS Rion)

5. E-boats particularly in Channel waters tended to attack at night under cover of darkness.