Jan Grudziński

Jan Grudziński

Jan Grudziński (born December 3, 1907 in Kiev , † May 23, 1940 in the North Sea ) was a Polish naval officer in World War II . Grudziński commanded the submarine ORP Orzeł , which has been missing in the North Sea since May 23, 1940.

biography

Jan Grudziński studied from 1925 at the I Korpus Kadetów in Lwów (Lemberg) and joined the Polish Navy . On August 15, 1928 he was promoted to podporucznik marynarki , in 1932 to porucznik marynarki and in 1936 to captain marynarki . In the 1930s, Grudziński served on the minesweepers ORP Smok and ORP Kujawiak .

In April 1939 he became first officer on the submarine ORP Sęp . The boat was still in the Dutch shipyard and the Polish naval command feared that if a conflict with Germany broke out, the neutral Netherlands would no longer deliver the boat. The boat was "hijacked" during test drives to Poland.

On June 1, he replaced Józef Chodakowski as the first officer of the ORP Orzeł .

Grudziński was considered shy and quiet. He had almost no experience with submarines, which is why the commander of the submarine Henryk Kłoczkowski did not trust him. The relationship between the two officers was strained from the start.

When the submarine left for combat use at the start of the war on September 1, open conflicts quickly arose between Grudziński and his commander. The commander made several incomprehensible decisions and was later interned in Estonia . This made Grudziński the commandant. He decided to free the meanwhile interned submarine and break through to Great Britain , which also succeeded.

On November 16, 1939 Jan Grudziński was awarded the Krzyż Srebrny Order Virtuti Militari ( Order of the Silver Cross ) by General Władysław Sikorski for his services . He also met King George VI several times . who awarded him the Distinguished Service Order on December 10th .

Then Grudziński ORP commanded Orzeł on several patrols, which mainly led off the Norwegian coast. On April 8, 1940, the submarine's greatest success came when the German troop carrier Rio de Janeiro , which was on its way to the German invasion of Norway, was sunk.

ORP Orzeł has been missing with the entire crew since May 23, 1940. The submarine probably ran into a British sea ​​mine .

Grudziński was posthumously promoted to Komandor Podporucznik and honored with 4 other medals. ( Krzyż Walecznych , Medal Morski , Udział Polaków w Kampanii Norweskiej and Złoty Krzyż Virtuti Militari (Order of the Golden Cross)).

Career

• 1928 - podporucznik marynarki - (comparable to lieutenant at sea )
• 1932 - porucznik marynarki - (comparable with first lieutenant to the sea )
• 1936 - captain marynarki - (comparable to captainleutnant )
• 1940 - komandor podporucznik (posthumous) - (comparable to Korvettenkapitän )

Web links

• Information about Jan Grudziński (English)