ORP Orzeł

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For other ships of the same name, see ORP Orzeł (disambiguation).

Career (Poland)
ORP Orzeł entering the Hel naval base, 1930s
Name:	ORP Orzeł
Namesake:	eagle
Laid down:	14 August 1936
Launched:	15 January 1938
Commissioned:	2 February 1939
Decommissioned:	11 June 1940
Fate:	missing, presumably sunk
General characteristics
Displacement:	1,110, surfaced 1,473, submerged
Length:	84.00 m (275 ft 7 in)
Beam:	6.7 m (21 ft 12 in)
Draft:	4.17 m (13 ft 8 in)
Speed:	19.4 knots (35.9 km/h/22.3 mph), surfaced 9.0 knots (16.7 km/h/10.4 mph), submerged
Complement:	60
Armament:	1 × Bofors wz.25 105 mm (4.1 in) gun 1 × double Bofors wz.36 40 mm (1.6 in) AA gun 1 × Hotchkiss 13.2 mm (0.52 in) HMG 12 × 533 mm (21.0 in) / 550 mm (22 in) torpedo launchers (4 aft, 4 rudder, 4 waist) *20 torpedoes

ORP Orzeł was the lead ship of her class of submarines serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. Her name means Eagle in Polish. The ship is most notable for her escape from neutral Estonia in what is now referred to as the Orzeł incident.

1 History
- 1.1 World War II
2 Orzeł in popular culture
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Orzeł was laid down 14 August 1936 at the Dutch shipyard De Schelde; launched on 15 January 1938, and commissioned on 2 February 1939. She was a modern design (designed by Polish and Dutch engineers), albeit a bit too large for the shallow Baltic Sea.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] World War II

[edit] Orzeł incident

Main article: Orzeł incident

At the start of hostilities Orzeł was on patrol in her designated sector of the Baltic Sea. Unable to return to the Polish naval bases at Gdynia or Hel, Orzeł had to make its way into a neutral port to offload its sick captain. The crew chose to go to Tallinn, Estonia on 14 September 1939. At the insistence of Germany, the Estonian authorities interned the crew, confiscated the maps and started to dismantle the armament. The crew decided to escape with their boat and make the perilous journey to England. Under the new command of its former executive officer, Lt.Cdr. Jan Grudzinski VM DSO, Orzeł escaped on September 18 with two Estonian guards taken captive. The Estonian and German press covering the Orzeł incident declared the two captured guards dead, yet the new captain carried them to Swedish shores and provided them with money and food for their safe return home, saying that if one is returning from the underworld he should travel first class only. Estonia's lack of will and/or incapability to disarm and intern the crew caused Soviet Union to accuse Estonia of "helping them escape" and claim that Estonia was not neutral. The Orzeł incident was used by the Soviet Union to justify the annexation of Estonia.

[edit] Scotland

ORP Orzeł in the United Kingdom

Without maps or most of her navigation equipment, Orzeł remained in the Baltic Sea and the crew decided to look for some German ships to sink. No ships were sunk, but Orzeł remained in the Baltic Sea long after all pockets of resistance on Polish territory were conquered by the Nazis. She evaded the numerous Kriegsmarine ships hunting for her, and made it to Rosyth in Scotland on 14 October, where she was subsequently based.

[edit] Norwegian Campaign

After refitting and rest, Orzeł went immediately on patrol. Near the small harbor town of Lillesand in southern Norway, she sank the 5,261 ton clandestine German troop transport Rio de Janeiro^[1] on April 8, 1940, killing hundreds of German troops intended for the invasion of Norway^[2]. Rio de Janeiro was on her way to Bergen in order to take part in the initial landings of Operation Weserübung - the invasion of Norway and opening move of the Norwegian Campaign.