On 2 May 1945, M-293, together with U-2359 and another submarine, was heading north through the Kattegat from Aarhus towards Horten in Norway. 94 men were on board M-293. The previous days they had left Fredrikshamn to clear mines in front of U-2359, which was heading from Kiel to the Arctic Ocean.

Shortly before 09:00, when the ships were just northeast of Läsö, 35 British Mosquito planes from the 235th appeared from the south together with 26 Mustang planes from the 19th and 65th and attacked the ships. One submarine, U-2334, managed to dive and escape. Both M-293 and U-2359 were sunk by the aircraft. However, the Germans managed to damage a Mosquito plane, with serial number RS620, which shortly after the incident made an emergency landing on F7 Såtenäs.

M-293 sank very quickly after a shell hit the boiler and exploded. Some of the crew managed to save themselves on rafts but most of them went down with the ship into the depths as they did not have time to get on deck in time to save themselves. Those who survived, several of whom were seriously injured, after the ships were sunk, sat in life rafts all day and drifted around at sea before the Danish fishing vessel “Bitten” arrived at the scene at 1530 after seeing distress flares from those in distress. The Bitten took 22 survivors on board. Several crew members had frozen to death in the cold water and several bodies were later found floating in the water and taken to Gothenburg.

The surviving Germans were interned at Backamo and the injured were treated at Sahlgrenska Hospital in Gothenburg. On 30 November 1945 the internees were sent home to Germany. There were also other German soldiers interned at Backabo and those who had fought on the Eastern Front were not extradited to their homeland but were instead sent to Russia and a not so pleasant future.