On the morning of 7 May 1945, U-320 — a modified Type VIIC/41 boat under O/L H Emmerich — was two days into her first operational patrol and running submerged, when she was detected by an RAF Catalina under Flt/Lt KM Murray of 210 Squadron, Coastal Command.
U-320 was damaged but not destroyed; Murray sighted oil, and sonobuoys dropped by the Catalina detected hammering.
Murray was unable to continue the attack and by mid-afternoon, at his Prudent Limit of Endurance (PLE), was forced to abandon the hunt.
At around the same time, U-2336 — a Type XXIII under O/L E Klusmeier seven days into her first operational patrol — sighted a British convoy in the Firth of Forth.
These were the last ships to be sunk by enemy action in the Battle of the Atlantic, nearly five and a half years after the first shot was fired.