ORZEL’S LONG VOYAGE

Southland Times, Issue 23998, 13 December 1939, Page 7

ORZEL’S LONG VOYAGE

Submarine Joins British Fleet

VESSEL HUNTED IN BALTIC (British Official Wireless) RUGBY, December 11. Details of the amazing voyage from Gdynia to England of the Polish subbarine Orzel after the German invasion of Poland are now revealed. The submarine left Gdynia on September 1, eluding a cordon of German submarines strung across the gulf,, and made for the Baltic. After a fortnight the captain became so ill that he had to be landed at Tallinn, Estonia. Here they found an oil tanker, an Estonian gunboat, five destroyers and two submarines. Because of the fact that a German merchantman was leaving harbour shortly, the Estonian authorities refused the Orzel permission to pro-, ceed.

The captain was left for another 24 hours, and at the end of this time an official 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 was under arrest. The complement were not asked for parole, but guns, breech blocks, all charts and small arms and all but five torpedoes were removed from the submarine. That night the first lieutenant, taking command of the submarine, cut the binding wire, gagged and' took aboard the guard and the crew made their escape in the craft. The sound of their capstan revealed their intentions and destroyers turned searchlights and gunfire on them. At 30 feet from the exit of the harbour they grounded. With bullets being fired at them at point blank range, they managed to slide off the rocks and escape. With the light of lighthouses' their only guide to navigation they fled submerged. Next day the captain brought the submarine to the surface, charged the batteries and later landed the Estonian guards on 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 they sighted a flotilla of German destroyers, but die water was too shallow to attack -with any chance of escape. At night J-hey rose to periscope depth and went ahead, but soon afterwards grounded. 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 shallow 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 the destroyers were after them. They submerged and lay quiet at the bottom and next day—the fortieth—they decided to try to set a course for England. With their 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 the sick cook, replenish their water supplies, and be given breech blocks for their guns. They were then prepared to go to sea forthwith on whatever patrol it pleased the British Navy to employ them.