ORP Orzeł

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For other ships of the Polish Navy named ORP Orzeł see: ORP Orzeł (disambiguation)

ORP *Orzeł*
Career
ORP Orzeł entering the Hel naval base, 1930s
Ordered
Laid down	August 14, 1936
Launched:	January 15, 1938
Commissioned	February 2, 1939
Decommissioned	June 11, 1940
Fate	missing, presumably sunk
Current position	unknown
General characteristics
Displacement:
surfaced	1,110 tons
submerged	1,473 tons
Length	84.00 m
Beam	6.7 m
Draft	4.17 m
Speed
surfaced	19.4 knots (35.9 km/h)
submerged	9.0 knots (16.7 km/h)
Complement	60
Armament	1 Bofors wz.25 105 mm gun 1 double Bofors wz.36 AA gun 1 Hotchkiss 13.2 mm HMG 12 533/550 mm torpedo launchers (4 aft, 4 rudder, 4 waist) 20 torpedoes

ORP Orzeł was a Orzel-class submarine serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. Built at the Dutch shipyard De Schelde, she was laid down 14 August 1936, launched on 15 January 1938, and commissioned on 2 February 1939. The lead ship of her class, she was a modern design (designed by Polish and Dutch engineers), albeit a bit too large for the shallow Baltic Sea. In Polish her name means Eagle. She is most famous due to her participation in the 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 September 14, 1939. At the insistence of Germany, the Estonian authorities interned the crew, confiscated the maps and started to dismantle the armament. The crew elected to escape with their ship and make the perilous journey to England. Under the new command of its former XO, 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 them 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.

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 England on October 14.

After refitting and rest, Orzeł went immediately on patrol. Near the small harbor town of Lillesand in southern Norway, she sank the German troop transport Rio de Janeiro on April 8, 1940. The Rio de Janeiro was on its way to take part in the initial landings of Operation Weserübung - the invasion of Norway. The Orzeł was lost with all hands on the next patrol somewhere in the North Sea, in late May 1940.