The Polish submarine Orzel escaped from internment and went on to fight the Germans against long odds.

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By Wilfred P. Deac

It was close to 3 a.m. when two shadowy figures overpowered the guard atop the conning tower of the moored submarine. In the control room below, a second guard found himself staring into the muzzle of a revolver. Soon both were bound and gagged.

An ax-wielding seaman meanwhile severed the electrical cable of the nearest searchlight and the telephone wires. Next came the mooring cables, which already had been surreptitiously sawed half through. Her dual electric motors humming, the submarine moved away from the dock. The high-bowed, nearly 1,500-ton vessel slipped stealthily toward the outer harbor–and ran aground on a mudbank.

Lieutenant Commander Jan Grudzinski ordered one set of air tanks flooded and another blown, then requested full motor power. Grudzinski had no sooner called for power to be switched to the twin-shaft Sulzer diesels than sirens screamed, searchlights stabbed through the darkness and gunfire erupted.

The dramatic escape of the Polish submarine Orzel (Eagle) came 17 days after Adolf Hitler triggered World War II by invading Poland on September 1, 1939, and barely 20 months after her own launching. Built by public subscription, Orzel was one of two submersibles ordered from Dutch shipyards by Poland as part of an effort to create a navy strong enough to defend the nation’s 90-mile northern coastline.

On September 8, Orzel left the Gulf of Danzig for the open Baltic. So far, the submarine’s luck had held. Bombs and depth charges had been evaded. Orzel had narrowly escaped a German trap by running through a minefield without hitting anything more dangerous than two mine mooring cables. Now a blanket of bad luck seemed to enshroud the boat. The captain, Commander Kloczkowski, fell seriously ill; typhus was suspected. Grudzinski, his executive officer, took over. Four days later, on the 12th, the Nazi advance forced the evacuation of Gdynia, on the Gulf of Danzig, and its naval base. Next, mechanical problems befell the submarine. Finally, repair needs and the captain’s worsening condition forced Orzel to seek a neutral port. Her prow turned northeastward toward the Gulf of Finland.

The castle-and-tower-dominated medieval skyline of Tallinn, capital of Estonia, hove into view on September 15. Overtly friendly, the Estonians escorted Orzel into the port’s naval facilities. Kloczkowski was taken away in an ambulance. Repairs on the submarine began.

More influenced by pressure from the then-allied Nazis and Soviets than by international law, the Estonians informed Grudzinski that his command was to be interned. While the Polish officers objected and argued, soldiers boarded the submarine to disarm her.

The appearance of the British Embassy’s naval attaché boosted morale. Although guards prevented him from boarding Orzel, the official managed to slip his calling card to a Polish sailor. On the reverse side was written “Good luck, God bless you.” Another arrival was more ominous–a truckload of workers sent to extract the torpedoes. Some accounts say 15 or 16 torpedoes already had been disarmed and transferred to the truck when Grudzinski engineered a breakdown of the hoisting machinery. Other reports, probably more accurate, indicate that, with 14 torpedoes removed, six remained in the stern tubes on September 17.

Tense with anticipation, the sailors made preparations for their breakout. Midnight, the time selected, came. But so did an Estonian officer on an unexpected visit. Any suspicions he may have harbored were allayed. Nearly three hours late, Grudzinski gave the nod to overpower the two onboard guards, and Orzel fled. She lay on the seabed throughout the 18th, and that evening Grudzinski decided it was safe to set a southwesterly course for the Swedish island of Gotland. There the overpowered guards could be released before the boat went on toward the Polish coast.

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