Submarine Orzel – Poland's Heroic Gesture

Polish Sub Stands as Pillar of Strength in World War II

Oct 28, 2009

She was the first to demonstrate that while the Germans could capture a country they could not conquer the determination or spirit of the people.

As relations between Poland and Germany worsened in the mid-1930s, Poland decided to expand its armed forces. Originally, four ocean-going patrol submarines were to be ordered from the De Schelde shipyards in the Netherlands, but only two were approved. The first, named Orzel - Polish for eagle - was financed by a voluntary subscription with funds raised by October 1937 from the general community as well as the army and navy. The submarine was commissioned to the Polish navy in February 1939 with pennant number 291. Orzel was to patrol Poland's 90-mile northern coastline with her sister ship, Sep.

Invasion of Poland

Seven months later, on September 1,1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the German army into Poland. A week later, Orzel slipped out of the Gulf of Danzig en route for the Baltic Sea. Bombs and depth charges couldn't stop the fleeing submarine. Plunging into a newly laid minefield, Orzel narrowly escaped destruction as she hit the mooring cables of two mines.

Sanctuary in Estonia

However, her luck did not hold, because the Germans captured Orzel's home port of Gdynia on September 12, leaving the submarine without a land base. Shortly afterward, her Captain, Commander Kloczkowski contracted typhus. The executive officer, Lt. Commander Jan Grudzinski, assumed command as mechanical problems plagued the vessel. He soon had no choice but to seek a neutral port for repairs and medical treatment for the captain. Grudzinski eased Orzel into me medieval Estonian port of Tallinn on September 15. The friendly Estonians escorted the submarine into the port's repair facilities and whisked the captain away in an ambulance.

Orzel Interred

It is unclear whether the overt friendliness was a rouse or if pressure from Germany and the Soviet Union was exerted later. However, the Estonians soon informed Grudzinski that Orzel was to be interred under the rules of international law. The Poles objected as soldiers boarded the submarine to disarm her. Workers arrived by the truckload to remove her torpedoes. But before they had been extracted, Grudzinski engineered a breakdown of the hoisting equipment. Work was halted for the day with six torpedoes on board.

Escape From Estonia

At 3 a.m., the Polish sailors overpowered the Estonian guards on the conning tower and in the control room. Telephone wires and electrical cables to shore were severed, the mooring lines cast off, and Orzel slipped out of the harbour and ran aground on a mudbank. Working frantically, Grudzinski managed to refloat his vessel just as sirens began screaming and searchlight beams probed the darkness. Orzel escaped and plunged beneath the surface.

With the Royal Navy

Throughout October, Orzel remained in Polish waters until word came that the Polish submarine Wilk had gone to England to fight alongside the Royal Navy. Grudzinski followed, and after repairs, Orzel became part of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla and in time to contest Germany's invasion of Norway in April 1940. Her new pennant number was 85A. On April 8, Orzel encountered the German troopship Rio de Janeiro, a converted liner, and ordered her to stop. When the merchant ship refused, Orzel fired torpedoes and sank the ship.

Loss of Orzel

Having conquered Norway, Hitler sent his armies to France. All Allied submarines, except Orzel, were sent south to contest the invasion. In May, Orzel was sent on her seventh patrol into the central North Sea. She was never heard from again, and it is assumed she hit a mine and sank in late May or early June. The Germans and British had recently laid minefields in the area, which Grudzinski might not have been aware of.

In 1970, Poland issued a set of stamps commemorating the Polish navy during World War 11. Included in that set was a stamp featuring the heroic submarine Orzel.

Bibliography

The copyright of the article Submarine Orzel – Poland's Heroic Gesture in WW II History is owned by William Silvester. Permission to republish Submarine Orzel – Poland's Heroic Gesture in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.