Another mistake I've been making is cleaning my map off completely.
Interesting you say that. At the start of this career I left some up until a pattern emerged and then cleaned them up while drawing lanes and boxes showing good spots and routes. After moving to France I decided to leave everything, all the attack plots, which over the next few years turned in to sort of a heat map for the North Atlantic. I'll attach it if anyone wants to see it. Pretty messy though.
With the war nearing the end, U-292 did one more Arctic Convoys patrol. This time we found action, and one of the Murmansk convoys was 15-20 ships, surrounded by ten destroyers. We attacked two on the patrol, one with the help of U-754. Got in and attacked, and part of the convoy appeared to romp. Two freighters and several LSTs (which have been common near the end of the war) took off on their own and headed in the opposite direction, unescorted, so we took advantage and ended up putting 73k under for the patrol.
Took a long refit because I had a special mission in mind. There's an achievement for ending the war by sinking your boat off the coast of Argentina. I rearranged the three milk cows along our intended route to South America, stuffed the boat to the overhead, and left Bergen on March 5, 1945, Just an hour out of port we were attacked from dead ahead by a fast, low flying aircraft who did significant damage and caused leaks and injuries. Not a good start. It did not use radar, and it is the first plane in the entire war that hit us when I immediately dived the boat. It was already low and heading in when we saw it and didn't get under in time. The crew is a veteran one and got everything patched up. We took a wide berth around Britain, out toward Iceland then cut south through the Pit. Caught on to a convoy and got in to sink a few ships, so that this mission would be an honorable one.
Took off to the south and made the first rendezvous with a milk cow south of the Azores in late March. By early April we were off the coast of Brazil and kept going south, all the while playing checkers with the cows, refueling and taking on food multiple times on the journey. As we reached the coast of Uruguay, we crossed a line where the radio was now out of range. I guess the cows can't relay it, but I thought this is interesting. Went south to meet a cow, before timing our return to the line in case we needed to be informed of the war's end by radio message, wasn't sure how it worked, but I thought maybe if I never got the message that I wouldn't be able to carry out the plan. On May 2, Donitz sent a message instructing all German warships to prevent capture by the enemy. Dutiful to the last, U-292 headed for the coast of Argentina. Morale was sagging, as expected due to the unfortunate end to the war, but also because we had been at sea for sixty-one days!
With the coast of Argentina in sight I opened the locker and broke out the champagne to celebrate our unexpected survival, which instantly sent discipline to 100 and U-292 was scuttled to prevent capture as the war came to and end, May 6, 1945. What a ride.
Was treated to a nice little summary screen at the end. I wondered how many 'trade ships' we had put under. Message attached.
