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Originally Posted by U-96
4- By late 1943 to the end of the war, Aircraft rule the atlantic. Nothing you can do about it except stay down often. a Schnorkel is a good investment as it raises your survivability exponentially. By late 1943, Patrols become an exercise of survival, and not a hunt. In order to stand any chance of sinkings at this point. try to transfer to a Flotilla that uses the type XXI and get one as soon as you can. By this time, if you lack a schnorkel or a type XXI boat. all you can do is pray.
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All good advice!
But in real life the XXI was NOT available for frontline patrol until the very end of April 1945. Definitely one, maybe two, Type XXIs left Norway for patrol. U-boat Commander Shnee heading for the North Atlantic was the first XXI to sail and made it only to the Shetlands when he received the order of surrender from Donitz. Before returning to Norway, he made a successful trial attack on a British Cruiser Task Force. Docked in Norway, the XXI was right next to the very same British Cruiser that could easily have been sunk. The British officers could believe the XXI went undetected by them until they compared logs and determined they were in the same place at the same time.