SUBMARINE ESCAPE

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 68, 13 December 1939, Page 10

SUBMARINE ESCAPE

Amazing Voyage Of The Orzel GDYNIA TO ENGLAND (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, December 11. Details of the amazing voyage from Gdynia to England of the Polish submarine Orzel, after the German invasion of Poland, are now revealed. The submarine left Gdynia on September 1, eluding at cordon of German submarines which was strung across the gulf, and made for the Baltic. After a fortnight the captain became so Bl that he had to be landed at Tallinn, Estonia. Here they found an oil tanker,

an Estonian gunboat, five destroyers and two submarines.

Because a German merchantman wits leaving harbour shortly, the Estonian authorities refused the Orzel permission to proceed. The captain was left for 24 hours, and at the end of this time officials arrived on board with the astonishing announcement that as the Orzel had exceeded the time allowed in a neutral port by international law the submarine wars under arrest. The complement were not asked for parole, but the breech blocks of the guns, all the charts and small arms, and all but five torpedoes were removed from the submarine. Flight from Harbour. That night the first lieutenant, taking command of the submarine, cut the binding wires, gagged and took aboard the guard and made to escape, J. he sound of their capstan revealed their intentions, and the destroyers turned their searchlights and gunfire on them. At 30 feet from the exit of the harbour they grounded, with bullets being lived at them at point-blank range. They managed to slide off the rocks and escape. With the light of lighthouses as the only guide to navigation they fled submerged. Next day the captain brought tne submarine to the surface, charged the batteries, and later landed the Estonian guards ou an island and made a wireless signal announcing the guards’ safety. For a fortnight they cruised in the Baltic, hunted the whole time, and frequently running into rocks. They made for the Swedish coast, when thej sighted a flotilla of German destroyers, but the water was too shallow to attack with any chance of escape. At night they rose to periscope depth and went ahead, but soon afterward they grounded. In Narrow Channel. After getting afloat again and several times again grounding and extricating themselves, they grounded on the surface. A searchlight from a destroyer time after time swung past within a few yards. They realized they had floundered into a channel so narrow that the Germans did not bother to search it. In desperation they -blew all their tanks and refloated. They attempted to creep away, but were discovered, and destroyers were after them. They submerged and lay quiet at the bottom, and next day—the fortieth—they decided to try and set a course for England. With the wireless apparatus,damaged and no recognition signals, they were a prey for attack by every nation. One of the officers, however, knew English, and on October 6 a faint message on imperfect transmission reached a British wireless station. A few hours later a British destroyer found them and led them into harbour. They had only three requests —to land a sick cook, replenish their water supplies, and be given breech blocks for their guns. They were then prepared to go to sea forth.with on whatever patrol it pleased the British Navy to employ them.