ORP Kujawiak (L72)
 The Kujawiak
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The ORP Kujawiak (L72) was a British Hunt-class destroyer escort that was loaned to the Polish Navy in exile by the Royal Navy during World War II . The warship was originally built as HMS Oakley (L72) for the British Navy , but was handed over to the Polish Navy before completion .
The Kujawiak ran into a sea mine near Malta on June 16, 1942 and sank. 25 seamen were killed and 20 wounded.
History of the ship
The Kujawiak was a Hunt-class Type II destroyer escort. She was ordered with the first war building program September 4, 1939 from Vickers-Armstrong at the shipyard in High Walker, Newcastle . The keel of the new building took place on November 22, 1939 and on October 30, 1940 it was launched as HMS Oakley . There was already an HMS Oakley in the Navy from 1917 to 1923 . The ship was transferred to the Polish Navy on May 30, 1941. The majority of the crew came from the formerly French destroyer Ouragan , which was operated temporarily by the Poles and whose operation was abandoned at the end of April due to lack of reliability. Another part of the Ouragan crew went to the Hunt destroyer HMS Silverton under construction at J. Samuel White in Cowes , which was taken over by the Polish Navy as ORP Krakowiak .
The Oakley entered service on June 17, 1941 as ORP Kujawiak . She was the second of three Hunt destroyers used by the Polish Navy during World War II. A torpedo boat of the A 56 class had already borne
the name Kujawiak , which was completed as A 68 in 1917 by the Schichau shipyard in Elbing and purchased in September 1921 with two sister boats for the Polish Navy. The obsolete boat was sunk by the Germans in 1939.
Calls
At the turn of 1941, the Kujawiak and its sister ship Krakowiak were among the units that carried out a command attack ("Operation Anklet") on the Lofoten Islands . The Royal Navy used a total of a light cruiser , six destroyers, three mine sweepers, two dropships, two submarines and a survey ship as well as two tankers, a transporter and a tug. There were also two Norwegian corvettes and two Polish destroyer escorts. The cruiser Arethusa hijacked smaller Norwegian freighters with three tribal destroyers and discovered key documents on an outpost boat. 300 men were landed, 77 of them Norwegians. On December 26th and 27th, 1941, they occupied the parishes of Reine and Moskenes , only to withdraw without losses with 32 German prisoners and some arrested Norwegian collaborators (quislings) as well as 200 Norwegian volunteers. The operation was only a diversionary maneuver compared to the simultaneous Operation Archery in Vågsøy . When the Arethusa was damaged by a close hit during a German air raid , the commander broke off the operation because he had no air security and began the march back on December 28, 1941.
On June 6, 1942, Kujawiak , stationed in Plymouth, came across the Clyde to secure a supply convoy for Malta and accompanied him to Gibraltar with the cruisers Liverpool and Kenya and the destroyers Bedouin , Onslow and Icarus . From June 12 to 16, 1942, the Kujawiak was involved in the double convoy operation Harpoon of Gibraltar and Vigorous of Alexandria to supply Malta. She was part of the security of the west convoy WS.19 (five freighters and one tanker) passing Gibraltar on the 12th , to which the flak cruiser Cairo , the destroyers Bedouin , Marne , Matchless , Partridge as well as the Ithuriel originally intended for Turkey and next to the Kujawiak the destroyer escorts Blankney , Badsworth , Middleton as well as four minesweepers and six MGBs belonged.
On June 15, south of Pantelleria, the Italian cruisers Raimondo Montecuccoli and Eugenio di Savoia attacked the convoy with five destroyers, severely damaging the Bedouin and then the Partridge that they were trying to tow. The Bedouin was eventually sunk by Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 “Sparviero” torpedo bombers. The security, reinforced by the mine- layer Welshman returning from Malta , prevented the Italian warships from advancing to the transporters during the first attack, which, however, was operated by St. 3 were attacked, with four severely damaged. A second attack by the Italian cruiser that night led to the sinking or abandonment of the damaged transporter. Only two of them made it to Malta, one of them badly damaged by a mine hit. Of the security vehicles , the Kujawiak sank at position 35 ° 53 ′ 0 ″ N , 14 ° 38 ′ 0 ″ E. when entering Malta when hit by mines she wanted to help Badsworth . Matchless and Badsworth were badly damaged, and Cairo and Partridge more lightly.
Commanders
- komandor porucznik Ludwik Lichodziejewski
See also
- ORP Kujawiak (other ships that bore the name)
- HMS Oakley (other ships with the original name)
- ORP Krakowiak (L115) , sister ship, taken over on May 41, returned to the Royal Navy in 1946
- ORP Ślązak (L26) , sister ship, taken over in June 1942, returned to the Royal Navy in 1946
Individual evidence
- ↑ ORP is the abbreviation for Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means Warship of the Republic of Poland .
- ↑ In the Polish language Kujawiak means Kujawier , which means the inhabitants of the region as well as a folk dance.
- ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
- ↑ "During her career in the Polish Navy, from 288 days, Ouragan only 31 days spent in the sea, 63 spent in the harbor and 194 in the yard !!" on archive link ( Memento from June 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Rohwer, Chronik des Seekrieges , pp. 205f.
- ↑ Freighter Troilus (7422 BRT), Burdwan (6060 BRT. 15. †), Chant (US, 5603 BRT, 15. †), Tanimbar (NL, 8169 BRT, 14. †), Orari (10350 BRT, damaged), Tanker Kentucky (US, 9308 GRT, 15. †)
- ^ Rohwer, p. 254f.
- ^ Rohwer, p. 256
- ↑ komandor porucznik corresponds stabskapitänleutnant .
literature
- HT Lenton: Warships of the British and Commonwealth Navies , Ian Allan 1969,
- Antony Preston: Destroyers , Hamlyn, ISBN 0-600-32955-0
- Jürgen Rohwer, Gerhard Hümmelchen: Chronicle of the naval war 1939-1945. Manfred Pawlak Verlag, Herrsching 1968, ISBN 3-88199-009-7 .