The 'Cat' Boats

Courtesy of Norm Brailey
Orewa, 1992.




They fly through the sky with a nonchalant air
With Zero's they play like a Tortoise and Hare
And the word gets around for the Jap's to beware
The 'Cat' boats are flying tonight.

They hang on the bomb racks a dozen or more
And twenty pound frogs simply litter the floor
So start up the donks and we're off to the war
The 'Cat' boats are flying tonight.

With many a sigh for our warm little cots
We thread our way through the steamers and yachts
And take to the air at a full sixty knots
The 'Cat' boats are flying tonight.

After plugging along for an hour or two
The skipper looks round at his trustworthy crew
The Observers asleep and the Engineer too
The 'Cat' boats are flying toight.

Come a break in the clouds and a light down below
The Skipper has had it so says "Let 'em go"
And mixed bombs and beer bottles rain down on the foe
The 'Cat' boats are flying tonight.

The clouds are clamped down on the bay like a vice
The Wireless Op. twiddles his dials once or twice
"I can't get a bearing, the sets on the ice"
The 'Cat' boats have had it tonight.

The A.S.V.s gone, the compass is swinging
But on through the night the great 'Cat' boat is winging
The engines cut out, and we hear the angels singing
The 'Cat' boats won't make it tonight.

So down through the clouds on the old bank and turn
And somebody yells, "there's the bay, just astern"
And down on the water the landing flares burn
The 'Cat' boats just made it tonight.

So lasso the buoy, after fighting the tides
Then off into town for a quick one at 'Hides'
And so ends one more of our hair raising rides
The 'Cat' boats were flying tonight.

Though dicing with death every day of our lives
We still find time for our girlfriends and wives
"Whackho" when the three sixty hourly arrives
The 'Cat' boats will not fly tonight.