Orzel returned to a war that had worsened for Poland. The Soviet Union had followed Germany's invasion with one of its own. Grudzinski, relying on improvised navigational aids, pursued a lonely mission in the northern sea even after Poland's last major army units collapsed on October 3. Influenced by a radio report that the Polish submarine Wilk had been welcomed by the British, and determined to avoid internment, the crewmen all agreed to go on fighting Germany at Britain's side.

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Once back in fighting trim, Orzel was assigned to the Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla in time to contest Germany's invasion of Norway. On April 3, 1940, the first ships of Weserübung ("Weser Exercise," the invasion of Denmark and Norway) left their German ports.

Weserübung called for unescorted merchant ships disguised as normal shipping to sail ahead of the faster warships so as to be in position when the invasion of Norwegian harbors came early on the 9th. One of those merchantmen was the tall-funneled, black-hulled Rio de Janeiro, originally a liner carrying passengers traveling between Europe and Latin America.

On the morning of April 8, the paths of Orzel and Rio de Janeiro converged in the Skagerrak just off Norway's southern town of Lillesand. Grudzinski ordered the submarine, which had been cruising at periscope depth, to the surface to challenge the merchant ship. Instead of heaving to as the Polish captain instructed, the German transport increased speed and turned shoreward in a futile attempt to reach neutral water. Grudzinski was watching the suspiciously slow approach of a boat lowered by the now-stopped ship when he learned that the merchantman was sending out messages. But when a demand flashed from Orzel to abandon ship, no visible reaction came from Rio de Janeiro.

Five minutes after noon, Grudzinski ordered a torpedo fired. It missed. With the second, Orzel became the first Polish warship to make a successful torpedo attack in the war. The transport's decks came alive with Wehrmacht soldiers as steam and smoke rose to form a shroud above the vessel. The submarine submerged to circle the listing Rio de Janeiro. When the steamer showed no sign of sinking, Grudzinski let loose a third torpedo. It exploded against the transport's side, broke her back and sent her to the bottom.

German high command fears that Weserübung had been compromised were needless. News of the incident had to be bucked up Norway's bureaucratic ladder to officials in the capital of Oslo before it was taken seriously, too late to do much more than trigger a last-minute limited alert.

When Hitler's forces invaded the Low Countries and France on May 10, 1940, all Allied undersea craft in Norwegian waters, except Orzel, one French and two British boats, were shifted southward in case the Germans decided to support their latest ground offensive with naval units. Sometime during the first week of June, the Polish submarine simply disappeared. Although the cause never was determined, it is believed that Commander Grudzinski and his five officers and 49 crewmen fell victim to a mine in the Skagerrak.

Orzel and her crew were among the first during the conflict to show–in a most graphic way and against overwhelming odds–that while the Nazis could conquer a country, they could not conquer the spirit and determination of its people.

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