This was the operation to rescue escaped German U-Boat officers from the Canadian coast.

We received a call from VOLKMAR KÖNIG (5428-1997) with some update information, and some changes. Here is his letter.

“It certainly makes sense what Mr. Lawton (PAUL LAWTON 4628-1996) writes about U-262 and U-376. When I some years ago read the pages 184/190 in the book by Mr. Hadley (Professor MICHAEL HADLEY 1612-1990) about U-262 on its way to Canada and its experiences off the North Cape and also the pages 156/158 in the book on ‘ALI’ CREMER (114-+-1985), Skipper of U-333 who was reconvalescing in the Dönitz staff from an injury as sub-captain. He was given orders to prepare orders for U-262 for picking up escaped German U-Boat officers off North Cape Canada and he went personally on 6 April 1943 to La Pallice to hand over the sealed envelope to U-262 captain Franke.

I started to investigate, because we had preparations for a mass escape of German sub-officers in the Bowmanville PoW Camp 1942/1943 to meet a U-Boat at Maisonette Point at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. All arranged by letter-code ‘Ireland’ (tunnel digging, tunnel discovery under mysterious circumstances etc., many interesting details I remember quite explicitly as I was witness on the spot!)

Then the extra escape of a single sub-captain (not “under the fence” but “over the fence”) to meet the U-boat awaited at the coast within a few days (U-536, one of the watch officers still living, is a friend of mine).

My conclusion – there was no other attempt for an escape of sub-officers from Canadian PoW camps to meet a U-boat and moreover camp No. 70 that was always mentioned with regard to this escape, did not house German officers or German Navy officers during the war, but merely civilian internees!!

My assumption– the Royal Navy knew of the planned Bowmanville escape plan and of the planned meeting with a U-boat at the Canadian coast because they had cracked the ‘Ireland’ code. But they thought it to be rather incredible! They tried to find out beforehand whether such an action could materialize anyhow. So they faked ‘Ireland’ coded letters from Canada and waited to see what would happen. And then to make preparations for the ‘real thing’ so they could capture the sub at the proposed meeting point. Therefore, the ‘training flights’ of airplanes U-262 observed waiting at the meeting point with no action from these planes against the sub!

Does the war diary of the Bowmanville camp commandant exist in some archive? It should contain information of the tunnel discovery. And is there somewhere in Ottawa an archive with a war diary of the Canadian Navy intelligence? What an interesting object for someone who wants to make a documentation for TV on this subject!

EDITOR NOTE – there will be more on this in KTB #168 next month, but for now who can follow up on what “KING” asks? Who can follow this up with the various archives and shed more light on this fascinating story? We welcome all input.