Orzeł incident
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The Orzeł incident refers to a World War II incident in which the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł escaped from internment in Tallinn, Estonia, and eventually made her way to the United Kingdom during the World War II. International law required all military ships to be interned by neutral parties, and her escape caused Estonian neutrality to be questioned by the Soviet Union and Germany.
The ORP Orzeł reached Tallinn on September 14, 1939. On 15 September Captain of ORP Orzeł Lieutenant-Commander Henryk Kłoczkowski left the ship for hospital as a result of an unidentified illness that he was suffering since September 8. At German insistence, the Estonian authorities interned the crew, confiscated its maps, and started to dismantle the armament. After the Soviet Union attacked Poland on September 17, 1939 the crew elected to escape with the ship and make the perilous journey to England. Under the new command of its former executive officer, Lt.Cdr. Jan Grudziński VM DSO, Orzeł escaped on September 18 with two Estonian guards taken captive. The Estonian and German press declared them dead, but the new captain made it 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, or incapability to disarm and intern the crew, was used as a pretext by the Soviet Union to accuse Estonia of "helping them escape" and to claim that Estonia was not neutral. They demanded to be allowed to place military bases on Estonian soil, threatened Estonia with war if she would not comply. This was simply a convenient pretext; with the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Germany had already agreed to allow the Soviet Union to take over the Baltic countries.
The Orzeł incident was used to force the "Pact of defence and mutual assistance" on Estonia, which was signed on September 28, 1939, which later led to the occupation and annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in 1940.
