ORP Czajka (ship, 1935)

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ORP Czajka
ORP Rybitwa, Czajka, Mewa and Jaskółka 1937
ORP Rybitwa , Czajka , Mewa and Jaskółka 1937
Ship data
flag PolandPoland (naval war flag) Poland German Empire
German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) 
other ship names

Westerplatte , TFA 11 , D-45

Ship type Minesweeper
class Jaskółka class
Shipyard Stocznia Modlińska , Modlin
Launch April 10, 1935
Commissioning February 10, 1936
Whereabouts Retired in 1970 and later scrapped
Ship dimensions and crew
length
45.00 m ( Lüa )
width 5.50 m
Draft Max. 1.55 m
displacement Construction: 185 t
Maximum: 203 t
 
crew 3 officers
27 men
Machine system
machine 2 × 8-cylinder diesel engines
Machine
performance 		1,040 hp
Top
speed 		17.5 kn (32 km / h)
propeller 2
Armament
  • 1 × 75 mm
  • 2 × 7.92 mm machine guns
  • 20 mines, alternatively 20 depth charges

The ORP Czajka was the fourth ship of the Jaskółka class from the 1930s. Designed as a mine sweeper , it was also intended as a mine layer and for submarine hunting .

The Czajka took part in all Polish operations in September 1939 and was sunk by its own crew on October 2nd with the surrender of the Polish troops on Hela . Lifted by the Germans and reactivated as Westerplatte , it served briefly in the 7th minesweeping flotilla, as a buoy boat, school boat in the detachment squad, torpedo catch boat , at the end of the war in an escort flotilla and after the end of the war for the German mine clearance service . Back in the Polish Navy, crews were trained on her until 1960 before she was retired in 1970.

Navy of the Second Polish Republic

The main task of the boats in the thirties was the training of the crews in all nautical and technical matters. In August 1939, Czajka and Rybitwa were on a training voyage on the Estonian and Latvian coasts. Captain Marynarki Aleksy Czerwinski was in command at this time.

On the morning of September 1, the Polish fleet left the base in Gdynia with the mine- layer Gryf , the destroyer Wicher , the minesweepers Jaskółka , Rybitwa , Czajka , Czapla , sowieuraw and the Mewa as well as the gunboats General Haller and Komendant Pilsudski from the base in Gdynia to go to Hela relocate and carry out the " Operation Rurka " from there. The Gdańsk Bay was to be protected against German ship attacks with a mine barrier.

During the crossing, 33 Ju 87 dive bombers of Lehrgeschwader 1 attacked the fleet and "Operation Rurka" had to be canceled. In this attack, the Gryf , Wicher and Mewa received damage from close hits. The latter had to be towed from the Rybitwa to Hela. The Mewa remained in Hela, while the five undamaged minesweepers were ordered to the naval port of Jastarnia , where they remained stationed until mid-September.

The Czajka and the other boats remained in constant use and carried out patrols on the coast. During further operations, Jaskółka , Rybitwa and Czajka provided fire support for Polish troops on the coast near Rewa on September 12 and again on September 14. The second attempt to lay a mine barrier in Gdańsk Bay was made by the still operational boats Czajka , Jaskółka and Rybitwa on September 12th. They each threw 20 mines south of Hela.

When the German air raid on the boats lying in the port of Jastarnia on September 14th, their use ended. Around 10 a.m., 11 Ju 87 dive bombers of 4th / Carrier Group 186 appeared over the harbor: Rybitwa was hit by a bomb that did not explode. Czajka and Żuraw showed minor damage, while Jaskółka and Czapla were destroyed.

Then Rybitwa , Czajka and Żuraw were transferred to Hela, where they were still at the time of the surrender on October 2nd. There they were sunk by their crews themselves.

German Navy

The Germans quickly raised the Czajka and on October 3, 1939, incorporated it as Westerplatte into the 7th minesweeping flotilla, which was only set up in September. At that time, the task of the flotilla was to clear the Polish mine barriers in the Gdańsk Bay.

Other information, however, does not name an operation with the 7th minesweeping flotilla, but gives October 3 or October 17 as the time for use initially as a buoy boat and later on December 16, 1939 or in general "1940" for transfer to the rifle test command (SVK) in Kiel . There they dealt with the development and testing of sea mines, detonators and clearing devices. Here the ship served as a school boat and was equipped with a 20 mm anti-aircraft gun.

From April 1943 the conversion to a torpedo intercepting boat took place , the commissioning as TFA 11 ("Torpedo intercepting boat abroad") on August 20, 1943. Whether it was stationed like the other two boats of the Jaskółka class with the 26th submarine flotilla in Gotenhafen , at which the torpedo firing training of submarine commanders took place, is unclear, but likely. This is supported by the joint use of the former Polish boats in the same escort flotilla at the end of the war. As a torpedo fishing boat, it had to recover fired exercise torpedoes. During this time she was armed with two 20 mm anti-aircraft guns.

At the end of the war, the TFA 11 (ex Czajka ) with its sister ships TFA 7 (ex Mewa ) and TFA 8 (ex Rybitwa ) as well as the old torpedo boats T 139 , T 151 , T 155 , T 156 and T 198 from the First World War became again Service in a combat unit used. Together they formed the re-established 4th Escort Flotilla from April to May 1945 and provided escort service in the Baltic Sea for the repatriation of troops and civilian population from the east as well as the Courland .

German mine clearance service

After the end of the war, like the other former Polish boats , the Czajka was assigned to the 3rd Mine Clearance Division of the German Mine Clearance Service on October 15, 1945 . The task of the 3rd Mine Clearance Division, based in Copenhagen, was to clear the sea mines in Danish waters. The - meanwhile unarmed - Czajka and her sister boats are not listed in the active flotillas and can be added to the reserve boats.

Navy of the People's Republic of Poland

In December 1945, the Polish military commission found the former Czajka together with her sister ships in Travemünde . The boats got their old names back and on March 12, 1946 they reached the former base in Gdynia. When it was returned, the Czajka was equipped with weapons from German stocks and now carried a total of eight 20 mm anti-aircraft guns - divided into one quadruple and two double guns. The boat kept this armament until July 1949.

In Gdynia the boats underwent a thorough overhaul, which was completed by June 1947. After the overhaul, it served briefly as a training ship for the naval officers' school until the destroyer Błyskawica, who had meanwhile returned from England, took over this task in July 1947 . They were then - contrary to the original plan to station them together with former Soviet minesweepers in Gdynia - moved to Stettin . From there, by mid-1949, they cleared the coasts and sea routes for which Poland was responsible of mines.

Reclassified from the minesweeper to the D-45 guard boat , it received new armament according to Soviet standards in July 1949 and now carried two 37-mm cannons in a double mount, two 12.7-mm machine guns (1 × 2) and two depth charges.

Until 1960, teams for anti-submarine defense were trained on it. In the last few years she served as a houseboat until the decision to finally decommissioned in 1970 and she was scrapped.

Remarks

  1. ↑ ORP is the abbreviation for "Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means "Warship of the Republic of Poland".
  2. ^ Twardowski, p. 171
  3. ↑ comparable to a first lieutenant at sea
  4. ^ Piaskowski, p. 42
  5. ↑ Twardowski p. 175f.
  6. ^ Twardowski, p. 176, Piaskowski, p. 43
  7. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/39-08.htm#SEP
  8. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/39-08.htm#SEP , Bertke Vol. 1, p. 128, Twardowski, p. 176
  9. ^ Twardowski, p. 176
  10. ↑ Twardowski, p. 177, Bertke, Vol. 1, p. 181, http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/mboote/m1-7.htm (there, however, mistakenly identified as minesweepers of the 1916 type the 1st World War)
  11. ↑ Gröner Vol. 5, p. 184 versus Gröner Vol. 5, p. 162
  12. ↑ Gröner Vol. 5, p. 117, p. 161, p. 183
  13. ↑ Gröner Vol. 5, p. 161, p. 183
  14. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/km/geleitflottillen.htm#Ostsee nach Hildebrand / Lohmann, Kriegsmarine 1939–1945, chap. 65, pp. 115-117
  15. ↑ Gröner, Vol. 5, p. 162, cf. Twardowski, p. 179
  16. ↑ http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/minen/dmrl.htm
  17. ^ Twardowski, p. 175
  18. ↑ Twardowski, p. 175, p. 179
  19. ^ Twardowski, p. 175
  20. ^ Twardowski, p. 179

Web links

literature

  • Marek Twardowski: The Jaskolka Class Minesweepers , in: Warships. A quarterly Journal of warship history 15 (1980), Conway Maritime Press, London, pp. 167-179, ISBN 0-85177-207-2
  • Stanisław M. Piaskowski: Okręty Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1920–1946 [The Ships of the Republic of Poland 1920–1946] , Planów album, Warsaw 1996, ISBN 83-900217-2-2
  • Robert Gardiner / Roger Chesneau: Conway's All the world's fighting ships 1922-1946 , Conway Maritime Press, London 1980, ISBN 0-8317-0303-2
  • Michael Alfred Peszke: Poland's Navy 1918-1945 , Hippocrene Books Inc., New York 1999, ISBN 0-7818-0672-0
  • Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815 - 1945, Vol. 2: Torpedo boats, destroyers, speed boats, minesweepers, mine clearance boats , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1983, ISBN 3-7637-4801-6
  • Erich Gröner: The German warships 1815 - 1945, Vol. 5: Auxiliary ships II: Hospital ships, accommodation ships, training ships, research vehicles , port operations vehicles , Bernard & Graefe Verlag, Koblenz 1988, ISBN 3-7637-4804-0
  • Vincent P. O'Hara: The German Fleet at war, 1939–1945 , Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland 2004, ISBN 978-1-61251-397-3 (eBook)
  • Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell / Naval-history.net: World War II Sea War - Volume 1: The Nazis strike first , Bertke Publications, Dayton / Ohio 2011, ISBN 978-0-578-02941-2