The Coal-Scuttle Brigade

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.

Alexander McKee’s book is the result of long research. He has interviewed the personalities concerned and his story is a brilliant example of crisp, factual writing, told without exaggeration or heroics. His 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.

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