latitude	longitude	Elevation	Date
48°45’42″N	86°31’49″W	-25 feet	June 30, 1941 06:52:01 PM EST

The probable target occurs under a church in a recently abandoned town called Coldwell or Port Coldwell. There is no known historical event at or near this location. The two nearest settlements from this area are the town of Marathon (14 miles away) and Neys Camp 100, POW Camp [More information below] (4 miles away). Investigations into the camp reveal few historical records of the the comings and goings of the camp.

During the period in question, June 30, 1941, Camp Neys held approximately 620 prisoners. Of these, there were about 65 officers, 190 senior NCOs, and the rest soldiers. The Canadian Government severely restricted reporting on prisoner escapes and rarely pursued escapees actively. They did send out wanted posters and many were caught be local police because of these practices. However, many more died of exposure in the harsh Canadian weather. Camp Neys, itself has three fences along the fence line and was contracted out to a lumber company. Escape was further made difficult at Neys because the barracks were built on the sandy dirt near the beach of Lake Superior. The water level here is quite high and most likely would lead to tunnels being washed out.

Research has scoured all sources and have come up with little in regards to escapes at the time. However, there is one promising report from a Veteran Guard (See Footnote). He mentions an investigation completing recently clearing himself, three other guards, and the lumber company of an complicity in the recent escape. The letter is dated August 5th, 1941. It is not certain if this escape happened around the same time or not. No record of wanted posters or numbers of escapees is mentioned anywhere.

From this we ascertain that the number of escapees must have been small and must not have been overly worrisome. We have cross-checked the records with lineage records and have made that list available. We have come up with no credible way to narrow the list of names for the following reasons:

1. The escape may have happened after the Τ event
2. Any escapees may have been re-captured
3. Any escapees may have been killed
4. Other German POWs died in the camps, we can’t sort out those that died naturally from those died while escaping (or thereafter)

What is clear, is that few that escaped made it back to Germany. There are a few high profile cases, but none from Camp Neys. Our opinion is that one or more escapees fled and found Port Coldwell recently abandoned. It it likely Coldwell would have been searched by the Canadians, if they searched at all. Whether they searched or not, the Germans had no way of knowing that and would have most likely hid out. From the letter, the location of the Τ event underground, and the lack of any other relevant information, we believe the event is related to the breakout and then the Germans digging to secure a hiding location. Perhaps, their make-shift hideaway collapsed and they died. Perhaps they found something. Money? Records? We have not been able to discover what it is they may have found.

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During World War II, 35,046 Prisoners of war and Japanese-Canadians were held in 26 main camps in Canada. The north shore of Lake Superior was the site of three such camps: Neys, Angler, and Red Rock.
Neys Camp 100 interned mostly German POWs, and some Japanese-Canadians between 1941-1946. The prisoners were forced to log in the Pic River and Little Pic River valleys.

German POWs were divided into categories: the “greys” who were largely ordinary soldiers, and the “blacks” who were considered die-hard Nazis, high risk for violence or escape. Neys Camp 100 was one of Canada’s nine camps which interred “black” prisoners. Hence the camp was enclosed by three barbed-wire fences and guard towers.

At the end of World War II, Neys was turned into a processing camp for POWs in the Northwestern Ontario region. It was then turned into a minimum-security work camp for civilian prisoners from the Thunder Bay area, and finally dismantled in the 1950s.