"ORP Orzel 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 boat is best known for the Orzel incident, her escape from internment in neutral Estonia during the early stages of the Second World War." (
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This polished stone historical marker commemorating the "Orzel incident" and describing its escape from Tallinn in 1939. The marker is presented in both Polish and Estonian languages. It is displayed on the outer wall of the Estonian Maritime Museum, at the north end of Tallinn, at Fat Margaret. The marker, first in Polish, then in Estonian, reads:
15 Wrzesnia 1939 roku
na skutek nacisku rzeszy niemieckiej
okret podwodny polskiej marynarki wojennej
orp "Orzel"
dowodzony przez kpt mar. Jana Grudzinskiego
rozbrojony okret w nocy 17/18 Wrzesnia 1939 r.
wslawil sie brawurowa ucieczka do Wielkiej Brytanii
skad kontynuowal walke na morzu.
wydarzenia te staly sie pretekstem do utworzenia
na terenie Estonii Sowieckich baz wojskowych
a nastepnie inkorporacji sklad Zwiazku Sowieckiego.
w holdzie bohaterskim Marynarzom
orp "Orzel"
rodacy
15 septembril 1939. Aastal
interneeriti saksa riigi survel tallinnas
poola sõjalaevastiku allveelaev
"Orzel"
Mereväekapten Jan Grudzinski juhtimisel võttis relvitu
laev ööl vastu 18.Septembrit 1939 ette hulljulge põgenemise
suurbritanniasse, et sealt jätkata võitlust merel.
see sündmus oli üheks ettekäändeks nõukogude
sõjaväebaaside rajamisele eesti territooriumil ja
eesti hilisemale inkorporeerimisele nõukogude liitu
allveelaeva "ORZEL"
kangelaslikeke meremeestele
poolakate poolt
Translated to English, it reads:
15 September 1939
The Polish Navy submarine “ORZEL” and her heroic crewmen were interned in Tallinn on 15 September 1939 under pressure from Germany [following their invasion of Poland and start of WWII]. On the night of 18 September 1939, First Officer Jan Grudzinski led the vessel’s unarmed crew in a daring escape, attempting to reach Britain to continue Poland’s fight from the sea. Intercepted and sunk by German forces, this event was a pretext for the Soviet Union’s establishment of military bases on Estonian territory and the subsequent
incorporation of Estonia into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
The Heroic Seamen of the Polish Submarine
"ORZEL"
The Orzel Incident
"At the beginning of the invasion of Poland Orzel had been deployed on patrol in a designated strategic zone of the Baltic Sea. Due to the German invasion, Orzel was unable to return to the Polish naval bases at Hel near the major port city of Gdynia.
Orzel's crew decided to head to Tallinn, Estonia as a result of an unidentified illness from which their captain, Lieutenant-Commander Henryk Kloczkowski, had been suffering since September 8. ORP Orzel reached Tallinn on 14 September 1939 and on 15 September the captain was forced to leave the submarine to undergo hospital treatment. Under the Hague Convention of 1907, section XIII, Article 12,[1] "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 officer, Lieutenant Jan Grudzinski.
The crew of Orzel conspired together to carry out a daring escape. Around midnight on 18 September, the submarine's Estonian guards were overpowered, the mooring lines were cut, and Orzel got under way. The alarm was raised, and her conning tower was peppered by machine-gun fire. Running half-submerged, Orzel 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 Wilk had been welcomed in Britain.
Orzel escaped from Tallinn with two Estonian guards on board as hostages. The Estonian and German press covering the Orzel 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 Orzel was used by the Soviet Union and Germany to challenge Estonian neutrality." (
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Visit this site (
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