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The Saint and the Sparrow by Richard W Skinner
The Saint and the Sparrow by Richard W Skinner
Popular history would have it that U-boats were deadly efficient fighting machines, yet here is the story of a U-boat and crew that in eight patrols managed to damage only one ship. It goes to show that when U309 entered service in 1943, the Allies' anti-submarine warfare was much better sorted out than earlier in the war.
Richard W Skinner's The Saint and the Sparrow is a booklet which contains a history of U309 and of HMCS St John, the Canadian frigate that over several days depth-charged her until the wreckage showed as two separate bits on the echo-sounder.
There is plenty of information, but the text doesn't really bring the people and events to life as some accounts of shipwrecks do.
It's an interesting hour's read. The wreck is now diveable in the Moray Firth and a particular treat for divers is the section of underwater photographs, with annotations overlaid to show exactly what's what.
John Liddiard
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The Saint and the Sparrow by Richard W Skinner (Historic Military Press, ISBN 1901313182). Softback, 32pp, £3.95
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