At 06.25 hours on 20 September 1942, U-435 fired one torpedo at convoy QP-14 west of Bear Island and observed a hit on a freighter after 46 seconds. After two torpedoes were fired at 06.26 and 06.29 hours, two detonations were heard after 4 minutes 10 seconds and 4 minutes 30 seconds. A torpedo fired at 06.28 hours missed, because it was a surface runner. Strelow claimed one ship sunk, one damaged and one possibly damaged. However, no hits can be confirmed by Allied records. At 06.31 hours, the U-boat fired one torpedo at a destroyer and observed the ship sinking after being hit 1 minute 25 seconds later. The reported destroyer was the fleet minesweeper HMS Leda (J 93) (LtCdr A.H. Wynne-Edwards, RN), which sank after being hit on the starboard side between the boiler rooms by one torpedo southwest of Spitsbergen. The vessel was repatriating 18 Merchant Navy seamen from the Navarino and River Afton that had been sunk in the ill-fated convoy PQ-17 in July 1942, three of the latter were lost in the sinking together with one officer and 43 ratings of the minesweeper. The commander, six officers, 65 crew members and 15 repatriated seamen were picked up by HMS Ayrshire (FY 225) (T/Lt L.J.A. Gradwell, DSC, RNVR), HMS Northern Gem (FY 194) (SkrLt W.J.V. Mullender, DSC, RD, RNR) and HMS Seagull (J 85) (A/Cdr C.H. Pollock, RN); 32 of them were later transferred to the British rescue ship Rathlin.