The Coal-Scuttle Brigade

by Alexander McKee

A masterful and impressive account of the WWII men and ships who tackled the twice-weekly run from the North-East to the South Coast of England. This sea route, between Southend and Southampton, was one of the most bitterly contested of the war. The German Army saw this as a great stretch for their landings. Once in the highly dangerous English Channel, ships were sitting targets from the French coast, the stalking Stukas in the skies and the lethal U-boats. Within seconds the night would erupt into chaos. On the “coal-scuttle” run, a fierce attack was certain to come, often just a few miles off the shores of England. Although all normal Channel traffic was stopped, only convoys of small vessels, mainly colliers, were allowed through to continue the seaborne coal trade. Now we can follow their harrowing journey as they fought to survive... The Coal-Scuttle Brigade is a result of long research. Multiple interviews of the personalities concerned has led to this story being a brilliant example of crisp, factual writing, told without exaggeration or heroics. McKee's book is a tribute to a small band of unsung heroes. Alexander McKee was selling aviation articles to flying magazines by the age of eighteen. During the Second World War he wrote for a succession of army newspapers and later became a writer/producer for the British Forces Network. Since 1956 he has been researching and writing books on all branches of naval, military and aviation history. He instigated the excavation of the Tudor ship Mary Rose in the seabed off Portsmouth, which he describes in King Henry VIII’s Mary Rose. In all he has written nineteen books.

Genres: World War II, History

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Alexander McKee was no "yes-man", he dared to criticise many military, political, economic, media and academic icons and he always kept an open mind. He was fanatical about making his works as accurate as he possibly could. He was ever alert to plain-wrong, biased, distorted or sloppy reports and hidden agendas; wickedly delighting (the more so as a self-educated man) in criticising and exposing assertions that did not fit the evidence. Among his targets were those who tended to emphasise media-image-managment, the accumulation of personal wealth and career progression over both personal integrity and respect for other people's contributions. He gleefully highlighted all the many lapses of integrity that he found. Equally, many established experts, often highly educated people and indeed experts regarding the theoretical aspects of their disciplines, but whom he considered scandalously remiss when they complacently failed to complement such theoretical understanding with practical knowledge as a way to test their theories empirically. Consequently, some of them came in for some harsh criticism on occasion. One gets the impression from his work that some of them appeared reluctant to venture outside the academy at all; out into the "real world": let alone to mix with ordinary people. Implicitly, he urged them to converse with the fishermen, the builders, the soldiers, the doctors, the nurses, the shipwrights and the firemen to glean practical understanding from these practical people, who had to be willing and able to carry out the ultimate tests on their theories to provide demonstably working solutions in order to fulfill their typical working roles. Then he urges such experts in the theory to re-test their theories against the empirically derived knowledge gleaned from their excursions among the working classes, and to do so conjunction with their own senses, out in the "real world": rather than limiting themselves and risking their reputations on the results of thought experiments alone. He dug deep into eye-witness testimonies and spent countless hours searching libraries and museums for the documentary evidence surrounding each his-story. One may find this slightly comical that viewed against the background of established caricaturisations, when the elevated "pillars of wisdom", went "building castles in the air" around about the "ivory towers" and he found strong contradictory "real world" evidence he often lambasted them mercilessly, although it does sometimes seem to be overdone. In contrast, he made the point that some of the sloppy documentary historical works such as that of Sir Robert Davis, that temporarily led his own research astray (and much to his annoyance caused him to repeat untruths in public lectures) while causing the propagation of serious errors until he uncovered them, were nevertheless probably a consequence of the pressures of work, owing to the high quality of the rest of the publication.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book written shortly after the Second World War about the experiences of the colliers operating around Great Britain. It is written from first person accounts of the men sailing and fighting in them and does not bombard you with statistics, but are just stories from the men who lived through it from the dark days of 1940 to final victory in 1945.

[NRVOUTDOORSMAN · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding account

Written only a few years after the events, and based on eyewitness accounts, this book is a tribute to the thousands of ordinary men in the merchant fleets who made victory possible. Great and inspiring stuff.

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nonfiction book that reads like a novel.

A truly interesting and exciting book. I vaguely knew about the dangers of being a merchant sailor during World War II. I did not know that they had only a slightly less chance of getting killed then a kamikaze pilot. I was also unaware of the difficulty of ship and aircraft identification. The author rights of unintentional sinking and shooting down of friendly craft. I can't recommend this book highly enough to any World War II reader.

[Steve Rufle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent WWII story from the British view and involvement. Very enjoyable and informative.