ORP Żbik (1932)
Żbik with the Hulk Lwow
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ORP Żbik was a submarine of the Polish Navy . The Żbik ( Polish : "Wildcat") built in France was used at the beginning of the Second World War and was then interned in Sweden until 1945 .
Mission history
Pre-war period
The boat was built between 1929 and 1932 at Chantiers Navals Français in Caen as the third boat in its class. After the arrival of the last Wilk -class boat in Gdynia on May 1, 1932, a division was formed from the three Wilk -class submarines, the old torpedo boat Kujawiak and the supplier Lwow . Żbik was given the identifier “Z”. The tower identification was removed on July 1, 1937. In August 1932 the Association visited Stockholm as part of a friendship visit. The next year Copenhagen and Helsinki were visited. In 1936 Żbik visited Reval together with his sister boats .
Second World War
When the Polish mobilization was declared on August 24, 1939 , the Żbik was put on alert and ammunitioned with 10 torpedoes , 22 sea mines and 114 grenades for the deck gun . At the beginning of the war on September 1, 1939, the Żbik ran out together with the other four Polish submarines to patrol the Polish coast as part of the Worek plan . The assigned sector was north of the Hel Peninsula . On September 3, the boat was attacked by the German submarine U 14 with a torpedo . But since the torpedo's magnetic igniter failed, Żbik was able to escape unscathed. Other sources indicate a failed torpedo attack by U 23 on September 7th.
On September 8, the boat laid 20 sea mines 9 nautical miles north of the Hel Peninsula. On September 12, as a result of the overwhelming German maritime superiority and the strategic defeats on the land fronts, the boat was released from its patrol area and ordered off the Swedish coast. On September 14th, the high command in Hel ordered the boat to break through to Great Britain. In the following days, however, the submarine leaked in heavy seas. Due to the penetrating water, the boat was only partially submersible. On September 17th, water reached the accumulators, which largely failed. The escaping chlorine gas made it almost impossible to continue operating the boat. Nevertheless, Commander Michal Zebrowski tried to break through to Great Britain, but ultimately had to give up because of the serious damage. On September 25, the Żbik was forced to enter the neutral port of Sandhamn in Värmdö / Sweden and to be interned. During the rest of the war, the boat was moored in Vaxholm with Ryś and Sęp .
On October 1, the German minesweeper M 85 ran at position 54 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ N , 18 ° 45 ′ 0 ″ E on a sea mine laid by Żbik and sank with 24 dead. The Navy 's understanding until the war ended that M 85 of the Polish submarine Orzeł was torpedoed. On 23 January 1941 the German fishing boat sank Mulhouse with the entire crew after at position 54 ° 53 '0 " N , 18 ° 42' 0" O also in one of the Żbik had run down sea mine.
After the war
After the end of the war, the boat was officially placed under Polish command again in September 1945 and then taken to Gdynia. The boat was overhauled between July 1946 and February 1947. In 1948 the torpedo tubes were adapted to Soviet standards and the anti-aircraft machine guns removed.
On September 9, 1955, the Żbik was shut down and demolished the following year.
Commanders
- February 20, 1932 - December 1932 - kapitan marynarki Eugeniusz Plawski
- December 1932 - July 1938 - kapitan marynarki Henryk Kłoczkowski (1936 promotion to komandor podporucznik )
- July 1938 - September 25, 1939 - komandor podporucznik Michal Zebrowski
See also
- ORP Żbik (other ships with the name Żbik )
literature
- Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9 .
Web links
- Żbik on uboat.net ( engl. )
- Żbik on polishnavy.pl (engl.)
- Jürgen Rohwer , Gerhard Hümmelchen : Chronicle of the Naval War 1939–1945 (September 1939)
Footnotes
- ^ "ORP" is the abbreviation for "Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means "Warship of the Republic of Poland".
- ↑ There are contradicting statements about this attack. [1] confirms the attack by U 14 under Kplt. Wellner on September 3, 1939. [2] ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. goes from a failed torpedo attack by U 23 at position 55 ° 38 '0 " N , 18 ° 54' 0" O under Kplt. Werner Winter on September 7, 1939. Winter reported a hit. Due to the German torpedo crisis , it is even conceivable that both statements are true, i.e. that there were two unsuccessful torpedo attacks.
