ORP Dzik (P52)

Dzik

The Dzik on December 15, 1942

Ship data flag  Poland United Kingdom (1946–1947) Denmark     other ship names P52 U-1 jumpers Ship type Submarine class U class Shipyard Vickers-Armstrong (Barrow) Keel laying December 30, 1941 Launch November 11, 1942 Whereabouts In 1958 shut down and broken up

Ship dimensions and crew length ~ 58.60 m ( Lüa ) width ~ 4.90 m Draft Max. ~ 3.90 m displacement Above water: 545 Under water: 740   crew 4 officers, 33 men

Machine system machine Diesel: 825 PS (615 kW) Electric: 615 PS (459 kW) Top speed 13 kn (24 km / h)

Mission data submarine Radius of action 5203 nm Duration of use 40 days Top speed submerged 9 kn (17 km / h)

Armament Artillery: 1 * 76mm deck gun Air Defense: 2 * 7.7mm MG Torpedoes: 4 * 533mm bow torpedo tubes; up to 12 torpedoes

The ORP Dzik (P52) was a submarine of the Polish Navy during World War II .

The boat was built by the Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd shipyard. The keel was laid on December 30, 1941 in Barrow-in-Furness / England . Originally the boat was intended for the Royal Navy as HMS P52 , but was handed over to the Polish Navy during the construction phase . After being launched on November 11, 1942, the boat was put into service with the Polish Navy on December 12, 1942 under the name Dzik . Like her sister boat Sokół, Dzik was mainly used in the Mediterranean . The two Polish submarines were nicknamed terrible twins .

Dzik destroyed or damaged a total of 18 German and Italian surface ships with a total tonnage of 45,080 GRT . Two enemy ships were also boarded. The boat took part in Operation Husky , the Allied invasion of Sicily , in 1943.

War effort

• On May 24, 1943, the Dzik fired a volley of four torpedoes at the Italian oil tanker Canaro (8,357 GRT) near Cape Spartivento in the Mediterranean Sea and damaged it. Then the submarine was attacked by two Italian corvettes with a total of 60 depth charges.
• On September 21, 1943, the German tanker Nikolaus was in the port of Bastia / Corsica . (6,397 GRT) and a German tug (333 GRT) sunk with torpedoes.
• On November 17, 1943, the Dzik sank a sailing ship with her on- board gun off Monemvasia .
• On January 8, 1944 was before Lesbos at 39 ° 37 '  N , 25 ° 43'  O Greek sailors Eleni (200 BRT) sunk with the rear gun.
• On January 9, 1944, the Dzik reported the sinking of a small unit by deploying the on-board gun in the Aegean Sea at 38 ° 25 '  N , 25 ° 21'  E

Further use

HDMS U-1

After the end of the war, the Dzik was decommissioned by the Polish Navy on July 25, 1946, returned to Great Britain and taken over by the Royal Navy of Denmark as U-1 in 1947 .

KDM Springeren

In 1950 it was renamed Springeren with the identification S 321. The boat returned to the UK in 1958 and was scrapped there.

See also

• ORP Dzik (other Polish ships named ORP Dzik )
• List of Polish submarines (list of all Polish submarines)
• List of British submarine classes
• Danish submarine classes

Web links

Commons : Polish Submarines  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• ORP Dzik on uboat.net ( engl. )
• ORP Dzik at polishnavy.pl (engl.)

literature

• Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9

Explanations

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. ↑ In the Polish language Dzik means wild boar .
3. ↑ terrible twins in the means English language terrible twins .
4. ↑ Before the German takeover, the tanker sailed under the Greek flag and was called Nicolaou Ourania .