It was U-262, then commanded by Kapitänleutnant Heinz Franke (Crew 1936), the code word for this PoW rescue attempt in Canada which was to include Otto Kretschmer (122-+-1985), was Elster, meaning magpie – a bird. Franke was Executive Officer (I.W.O.) before that on U-84 and in 1945, commander of Type XXI boats U-3609 and U-2502.

Because of the still heavy ice situation in the Cabot Strait, Franke was unable to break through the ice and decided to underdive the heavy ice cover, both very risky as well as hardly ever done before with success! But the rescue operation became a bust, as the Canadians had decoded the PoW’s correspondence using the so-called Ireland code for secret texts.

U-262 reached Lighthouse North Point, but waited in vain!

This answers the question whether this rescue was really attempted