View source for ORP Orzeł (1938)

{{Short description|Polish World War II submarine}}
{{Other ships|ORP Orzeł}}
{{more citations needed|date=May 2012}}
'''ORP ''Orzeł''''' was an [[Orzeł-class submarine|''Orzeł'' class]] submarine of the Polish Navy that served during [[World War II]].
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=ORP Orzeł w Gdyni.jpg
|Ship caption=ORP ''Orzeł'' arrives in the port of [[Gdynia]]
}}
{{Infobox ship career
|Hide header=
|Ship country=Poland
|Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Poland|naval}}
|Ship name=ORP ''Orzeł''
|Ship namesake=[[Eagle]]
|Ship owner=
|Ship operator=
|Ship ordered=
|Ship awarded=
|Ship builder=[[Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding|De Schelde]], Netherlands
|Ship yard number=
|Ship way=
|Ship laid down=14 August 1936
|Ship launched=15 January 1938
|Ship sponsor=
|Ship christened=
|Ship completed=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship commissioned=2 February 1939
|Ship decommissioned=11 June 1940
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship renamed=
|Ship reclassified=
|Ship refit=
|Ship struck=
|Ship reinstated=
|Ship homeport=
|Ship motto=
|Ship nickname=
|Ship honours=
|Ship captured=
|Ship fate=Missing, presumed sunk
|Ship notes=
|Ship badge=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
|Hide header=
|Header caption=
|Ship class={{sclass|Orzeł|submarine}}
|Ship tonnage=
|Ship displacement=*1,110, surfaced
*1,473, submerged
|Ship length={{convert|84.00|m|ftin|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam={{convert|6.7|m|ftin|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship draught={{convert|4.17|m|ftin|0|abbr=on}}
|Ship depth=
|Ship hold depth=
|Ship ice class=
|Ship power=
|Ship propulsion=
|Ship speed=*{{convert|19.4|kn|lk=in}}, surfaced
*{{convert|9|kn|abbr=on}}, submerged
|Ship range=
|Ship endurance=
|Ship test depth=
|Ship boats=
|Ship capacity=
|Ship complement=60
|Ship crew=
|Ship time to activate=
|Ship troops=
|Ship sensors=
|Ship EW=
|Ship armament=*1 × Bofors wz.25 {{convert|105|mm|in|abbr=on}} gun
*1 × double [[Bofors 40 mm Automatic Gun L/60|Bofors wz.36]] {{convert|40|mm|in|abbr=on}} AA gun
*1 × Hotchkiss {{convert|13.2|mm|in|abbr=on}} [[heavy machine gun|HMG]]
*12 × {{convert|533|mm|in|abbr=on}} / {{convert|550|mm|in|abbr=on}} torpedo launchers (4 aft, 4 rudder, 4 waist)
*20 [[torpedo]]es
|Ship armour=
|Ship armor=
|Ship aircraft=
|Ship aircraft facilities=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

==Construction==
[[File:Achteraanzicht van de nog niet afgebouwde Poolse onderzeeboot ORP Orzel op de werf in Vlissingen (2000-364-24).jpg|thumb|left|''Orzeł'' under construction at the Dutch shipyards in [[Vlissingen]].]]
''Orzeł'' was laid down 14 August 1936 at the [[Netherlands|Dutch]] [[shipyard]] [[Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding|De Schelde]], as  Job No. 205; launched on 15 January 1938, and commissioned on 2 February 1939. She was a modern design (designed by the joint venture of Polish and Dutch engineers), albeit quite large for the shallow waters of the [[Baltic Sea]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2008}}

==World War II==

===Polish Campaign===

At the beginning of the [[invasion of Poland]] ''Orzeł'' was docked in [[Oksywie]]. As per the [[Worek Plan]], the submarine was deployed on patrol in a designated strategic zone of the Baltic Sea. The crew received orders to attack the [[pre-dreadnought]] ''[[SMS Schleswig-Holstein|Schleswig-Holstein]]'', should it leave [[Free City of Danzig|Danzig]]. With the situation rapidly deteriorating, ''Orzel'' abandoned its sector on 4 September and began to withdraw into the [[Baltic Sea]]. The submarine was attacked by the German minesweepers ''M3'' and ''M4'' and was damaged but evaded destruction that evening.

===Escape to Britain===
{{Main|Orzeł incident}}
[[File:De vier boegbuizen van de in aanbouw zijnde Poolse onderzeeboot ORP Orzel 21 (2000-364-36).jpg|thumb|left|The bow torpedo room]]
[[File:Submarine Orzeł 1939 Profile.svg|thumb]]
[[File:Tallinn orzel.jpg|thumb|Plaque in both Polish and Estonian commemorating the "''Orzeł'' incident" and the escape of the submarine ''Orzeł'' in 1939, [[Estonian Maritime Museum]], [[Tallinn]]]] 
''Orzel''{{'}}s crew decided to head to [[Tallinn]], [[Estonia]] as a result of the damage. ''Orzeł'' reached Tallinn on 14 September 1939. On 15 September the captain, [[Lieutenant-Commander]] {{ill|Henryk Kloczkowski|pl|Henryk Kłoczkowski}}, was forced to leave the submarine to undergo hospital treatment for an unknown illness he had been suffering from since 8 September. Under the [[Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907)|Hague Convention of 1907]], section XIII, Article 12,<ref>[http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hague13.asp The Avalon Project – Laws of War : Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers in Naval War (Hague XIII); October 18, 1907<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> "belligerent ships" could enter a neutral port but were forbidden from remaining there for "more than twenty-four hours." At the insistence of Germany, the Estonian military authorities boarded the ship, interned the crew, confiscated all the navigation aids and maps, and commenced removing all her armaments. However, only fifteen of her twenty torpedoes were removed before the hoist cable parted; this was because it had been secretly sabotaged by her new commander, former [[chief mate|chief officer]], [[Lieutenant (navy)|Lieutenant]] [[Jan Grudzinski]].

The crew of ''Orzeł'' conspired to carry out a daring escape. Around midnight on 18 September, the submarine's Estonian guards were overpowered, the mooring lines were cut, and ''Orzeł'' got under way. The alarm was raised, and her conning tower was peppered by machine-gun fire. Running half-submerged, ''Orzeł'' ran aground on a bar at the harbour mouth, where artillery fire damaged her wireless equipment. Grudzinski managed to get the boat off the bar by blowing her tanks, and she proceeded out of the Gulf of Finland, intending to sail for a British port, the crew having heard a radio report that the Polish submarine {{ORP|Wilk|1929|2}} had been welcomed in Britain.

''Orzel'' escaped from Tallinn with two Estonian guards on board as hostages. The Estonian and German press covering the [[Orzeł incident|''Orzeł'' incident]] declared the two captured guards missing at sea. Grudzinski set them ashore in [[Sweden]], providing them with clothing, money, and food for their safe return to homeland. The Polish crew believed that "those returning from the underworld deserve to travel first class only". The escape of the submarine ''Orzeł'' was used by the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] to challenge Estonian neutrality.

[[File:De machinekamer met de beide Sulzer dieselmotoren van de in aanbouw zijnde Poolse onderzeeboot ORP Orzel (2000-364-53).jpg|thumb|left|The engine room]]
Since ''Orzeł''{{'}}s navigational charts had all been removed by the Estonian authorities, Captain Grudzinski resolved to stop a German ship and take her charts. However, the only German vessels encountered were warships rather than merchantmen. The submarine's sole remaining navigational aid was a list of lighthouses, and using these as a reference, ''Orzeł'' followed a course along the Baltic coast, around Denmark, and out into the North Sea, where she came under attack by British as well as German forces, since without her wireless equipment she had no means of identifying herself.

Forty days after she had originally sailed from Gdynia, ''Orzeł'' made landfall, off the east coast of Scotland. She lay on the bottom until emergency repairs were made to the radio, then surfaced to transmit a message in English. A [[Royal Navy]] destroyer then came out and escorted her into port, to the surprise of the British who had thought her sunk already weeks earlier.

''Orzeł'' sank no enemy vessels during her journey from Estonia to Britain, but Soviet authorities blamed her for sinking the Soviet tanker ''Metallist'' in [[Narva Bay]] on 26 September, and used the incident as a pretext for the Soviet invasion of Estonia.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Polmar |first1=Norman |first2=Jurrien |last2=Noot |title=Submarines of the Russian and Soviet navies, 1718–1990 |place=Annapolis, MD |publisher=Naval Institute Press |year=1991 |page=95 |isbn=978-0-87021-570-4}}</ref>

===Norwegian Campaign===
[[File:Rio de JaneiroHSDG.jpg|thumb|The clandestine German troopship ''Rio de Janeiro'']]
After a refit, ''Orzeł'' was assigned to the Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla and was assigned to patrol missions. Shortly after noon on 8 April 1940 she sank the {{GRT|5261}} clandestine German [[troopship]] {{SS|Rio de Janeiro|1914|2}} off the small harbour village of [[Lillesand]] in southern Norway,<ref>[http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/handelsmarine/verlustliste8.htm Losses of the German merchant navy on ''Rio de Janeiro''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030224013449/http://chrito.users1.50megs.com/handelsmarine/verlustliste8.htm |date=2003-02-24 }} {{in lang|de}}</ref> killing hundreds of German troops intended for the [[Operation Weserübung|invasion of Norway]].<ref>[http://www.mil.no/start/aktuelt/nyheter/article.jhtml?articleID=95450 Norwegian Defence Force website on the sinking of ''Rio de Janeiro''] {{in lang|no}}</ref> ''Rio de Janeiro'' was heading 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]]. News that several hundred German soldiers were rescued by the Norwegian Navy and some had admitted their intention to [[German occupation of Norway|occupy Norway]] reached the Norwegian parliament that evening, but the news was dismissed and no steps were taken to alert their Navy or Coast Guard of the impending invasion.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brown |first=David |title=Naval Operations of the Campaign in Norway, April–June 1940 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZH7AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA13 |year=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1135273705 |page=13}}</ref> Two days later ''Orzeł'' fired a torpedo at a German minesweeper V 705; however, she was forced to dive before the sinking of the German ship could be confirmed. The ship was not damaged by the torpedoes.

==Loss==
[[File:Orzel Submarine.jpg|thumb|''Orzeł'' in the United Kingdom]]
On 23 May 1940, ''Orzeł'' departed on its seventh patrol in the central North Sea. On 1 and 2 June, radio messages were transmitted from the [[Rosyth Dockyard|Rosyth Naval base]] ordering the boat to alter its patrol area and proceed to the [[Skagerrak]] (the [[strait]] separating [[Norway]] and [[Sweden]] from the [[Denmark|Danish]] [[Jutland|Jutland peninsula]]). No radio signals had been received from her since she had sailed, and on 5 June ''Orzeł'' was ordered to return to base. No reception was acknowledged. On 8 June 1940 the submarine was officially declared lost. The true cause is unknown, although it is commonly believed ''Orzeł'' most likely struck a British or German [[sea mine]] in or near the Skagerrak. Another theory suggests the boat may have been sunk mistakenly by a British aircraft.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |url= http://santiodnalezcorla.pl/ekspedycja-santi-odnalezc-orla-2017-zakonczona/ |title=EKSPEDYCJA "SANTI ODNALEŹĆ ORŁA" 2017 ZAKOŃCZONA |date=2017-06-09 |work=Fundacja "Odnaleźć Orła" |access-date=2017-06-09 |language=pl-PL}}</ref>

==Search for the wreck==
Between 2008 and 2017 a number of Polish expeditions, both private and public-funded, searched the region of North Sea where she went missing with the hope of finding her final resting place. Wrecks of various other ships have been located, but ''Orzeł'' has not been among them, and the fate of the ship remains unknown.

In June 2013 the Polish Navy, following reports of a wreck of an unknown large submarine found in the North Sea, conducted one more expedition to check whether the ship could be ''Orzeł''. The wreck was surveyed and identified as {{HMS|J6}}.<ref>{{cite news |first=Łukasz|last=Zalesiński |title=Polacy odkryli brytyjski okręt [''The Poles discovered a British ship'']|url=http://www.polska-zbrojna.pl/home/articleshow/10005?t=Polacy-odkryli-brytyjski-okret |work=Polska Zbrojna|date= 18 October 2013|access-date=5 February 2014|language=pl}}</ref> In 2017 another private expedition found a previously unknown wreck which they identified to be most likely {{HMS|Narwhal|N45|6}} based on sonar data.<ref name=":0"/>

On May 23, 2020, 80 years after ''Orzeł'' left on its final patrol, the Shipwreck Expeditions Association announced a partnership to search for the wreck in conjunction with the [[Maritime University of Szczecin]] with the assistance from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and the Ministry of Maritime Economy and Inland Navigation.<ref>{{cite web |title=80 Years have passed since the last voyage of the Eagle The Search for the Legendary Ship Begins |url=http://www.niezalezne.media/2020/05/22/mija-80-lat-od-ostatniego-rejsu-orla-ruszaja-poszukiwania-legendarnego-okretu/ |website=WENY News |date=22 May 2020 |access-date=3 June 2020}}</ref> 
The search is currently entering the logistics and preparations phase for the first expedition.<ref name="They want to find the submarine, ORP Orzel.">{{cite web |last=Gibas |first=Grzegorz |title=Chcą odnaleźć okręt podwodny ORP Orzeł |url=https://radioszczecin.pl/1,406404,chca-odnalezc-okret-podwodny-orp-orzel |website=Radio Szczecin |date=26 May 2020 |access-date=3 June 2020}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[The Eagle (1959 film)|''The Eagle'' (1959 film)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons|ORP Orzeł}}
* http://crolick.website.pl/orporzel/ {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225150721/http://crolick.website.pl/orporzel/ |date=2017-02-25 }} {{in lang|en}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071218084722/http://www.orzel.one.pl/ Association of the "ORZEŁ" submarine search group] {{in lang|pl|en|de}}
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5425.html Uboat.net on ''Orzeł'']
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070813130042/http://www.cold.waroffice.org/ ORP Orzel], a concept album from Cold Fusion
* [http://wyprawywrakowe.pl/en/ Shipwreck Expeditions Association] {{in lang|pl|en}}

{{Orzeł class submarine}}
{{September 1939 shipwrecks}}
{{May 1940 shipwrecks}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|54|59|N|1|00|E|region:GB_source:kolossus-plwiki|display=title}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orzel}}
[[Category:Orzeł-class submarines]]
[[Category:World War II submarines of Poland]]
[[Category:Germany–Soviet Union relations (1918–1941)]]
[[Category:World War II shipwrecks in the North Sea]]
[[Category:1938 ships]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in September 1939]]
[[Category:Maritime incidents in May 1940]]
[[Category:Missing submarines of World War II]]
[[Category:Ships built in Vlissingen]]
[[Category:Warships lost with all hands]]
[[Category:Submarines lost with all hands]]
[[Category:Germany–Soviet Union military relations]]