At 06.25 hours on 20 Sep, 1942, U-435 fired one torpedo at the 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) (Cdr A.H. Wynne-Edwards, RN), which sank southwest of Spitsbergen. The survivors were rescued by the British rescue ships Rathlin and Zamalek.