P-Peter took off at and flew at to fly under any German radar against a headwind and took ten hours to reach Bear Island. The crew saw no ice until north of the island but drift ice further on made a convoy course north of Bear Island impractical. The Catalina reached Barentsburg at and men were seen waving from a hut north of town. The bags were thrown out and the aircraft landed, took Glen, Ross and a Norwegian soldier on board and took off to check the polar ice west of the island towards Jan Mayen, where ice was seen short of the island, through which no convoy could sail. P-Peter landed at Akureyri in Iceland at The results of the ice reconnaissance were too sensitive to send by wireless and P-Peter took off for a six-hour flight Sullom Voe, where the results could be sent by telephone. Glen had been on Spitsbergen for six weeks and was called to the Admiralty along with the Catalina pilot to deliver a "Report on Operation Fritham", containing details of the situation of Fritham Force, whether reinforcements would achieve the objectives of the operation, an assessment of the German strength on the island and the likelihood of the personnel being replaced by an automatic weather station, to the Director of Naval Intelligence. The Admiralty decided to terminate Fritham and begin Operation Gearbox, a Norwegian venture supplied by the navy and co-ordinated with PQ convoys.