Orzeł incident
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The Orzeł incident [1] was an incident at the beginning of World War II in which the Polish submarine ORP Orzeł escaped from internment in Tallinn, Estonia, and eventually made her way to the United Kingdom. Hague Convention of 1907, section XIII, Article 8, [2] requires 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 boat for hospital as a result of an unidentified illness from which he had been 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 boat and make the perilous journey to Scotland. Under the 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 submarine made it to Swedish waters and the two Estonian guards taken captive were provided with money and food for their safe return home, with the new captain saying that "if one is returning from the underworld, one should travel first class only". Orzeł then went to the Royal Navy base at Rosyth in Scotland.
Estonia's failure to disarm and intern the crew, interpreted by the Soviet Union as lack of will, was used as a pretext by the Soviet Union to accuse Estonia of "helping them escape" and to claim that Estonia was not neutral. The Soviets demanded to be allowed to place military bases on Estonian soil, threatening Estonia with war if she would not comply. This was simply a convenient pretext; the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, already gave German agreement allowing 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, and led to the occupation and annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union in 1940.
