ORP Smok

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ORP Smok
ORP Smok Gryf wrak.jpg
Ship data
flag FranceFrance (national flag of the sea) France Belgium Poland German Empire
BelgiumBelgium (trade flag) 
PolandPoland (naval war flag) 
German EmpireGerman Empire (Reichskriegsflagge) 
other ship names

Le Boxeur (1922–1930)
Leopold (1930–1932)
Piast (1932–1935)
Rixhöft (1940–1945)

Ship type tractor
Shipyard Compagnie Générale de Matériel Naval , La Rochelle
Launch September 2, 1921
Whereabouts after a mine before the March 2, 1945 Warnemunde dropped
Ship dimensions and crew
length
40.30 m ( Lüa )
width 9.10 m
Draft Max. 3.45 m
displacement 655/711  t
measurement 413 GRT
 
crew 30th
Machine system
machine Triple expansion machine
Machine
performance 		1000 hp
Top
speed 		12.5 kn (23 km / h)
propeller 1
Armament

1935: 2 × 13.2 mm Hotchkiss machine guns.
1939: 2 × 37 mm Hotchkiss guns

The ORP Smok (German: “Dragon”) was a tugboat built in 1921 for the Polish Navy . Before that he was a French Le Boxeur , from 1930 as a Belgian Leopold . In October 1939, the crew sank the ship. The German Navy lifted it and used it under the name Rixhöft until it sank in a mine explosion in March 1945.

Construction and technical data

The tradition of the tug is always noticed by deviating information that already begins with the construction of the ship: The keel was laid on behalf of the French government in the Compagnie Générale de Matériel Naval shipyard in La Rochelle under hull number 2. In French sources, September 2, 1921 is given as the date of launch , all other sources only give dates between 1921 and 1923. The tug was baptized with the name Le Boxeur . The length was 40.30 m, it was 9.10 m wide and had a draft of 3.45 m. The ship had a construction displacement of 655 t, after the conversion in 1938 then 711 t and was measured with 413 GRT . The drive consisted of a triple expansion machine , the SA of the Anciens Etablissements Delaunay-Belleville from St. Denis . This achieved an output of 1,000 hp and acted on one screw . With this, the tug reached a top speed of 12.5 knots . The crew included up to 30 officers and men.

history

French tug Le Boxeur 1922–1929

For the following period, only the annual information is available, which - depending on the construction time - deviates by one year. It is certain that the tractor was based in Bordeaux until it was sold in 1930 . After delivery by the shipyard, the French government used the Boxeur as a shipyard tug . Just three years later, she sold the ship to the Ateliers et Chantiers Maritimes du Sud Ouest shipyard , and in 1929 it was resold to the tug company Entreprise Générale de Travaux Maritimes (EGTM). The Le Boxeur stayed there for a year and was then sold on to Belgium.

Belgian tug Leopold 1929–1932

The ship was bought on May 16, 1929 by the tug and salvage company Union de Remorquage et de Sauvetage in Antwerp, Belgium . Antwerp also became the ship's new home port. The shipping company renamed the tug Leopold and used it in this port in the following years. In autumn 1932 the shipping company sold the ship to the Polish Navy .

ORP Smok of the Polish Navy 1932–1939

In early 1932, the Polish Navy decided to buy a tug for the ports in Gdynia and Hel . She acquired the ship on October 12, 1932, and on November 4 it reached the port of Gdynia. It is unclear whether it should only receive the name Piast - ( Piast was the legendary progenitor of the Polish Piast dynasty) - or actually carried it for a short time. The details about the date of commissioning differ and range from March to December 1933, the same applies to the assignment of the name Smok .

In the following years, the tug was used for different purposes and rebuilt several times. In 1934 it was rebuilt so that it could serve as a training ship for cadets in navigation courses. During the next renovation - the literature mentions the year 1935 as well as 1937 - the ship was made into an auxiliary mine- layer and a year later it was converted back into a tug. The navy also used the ship for school purposes. In July 1939, the Smok started another training run. This led from Gdynia to Horten in Norway via Liepāja and Ventspils in Latvia and Tallinn and Narva in Estonia , on to Norrköping , Visby and Kalmar in Sweden and from there back to Poland. It was the last major training voyage of a ship in the Polish Navy before the outbreak of war. On August 24, 1939, the Smok returned to Hel.

At the beginning of the German invasion of Poland , the Smok was assigned to the headquarters of the military port on Hel. On the very first day of the war, the tug in the port of Oksywie was slightly damaged by a German air raid. In the following years he transported supplies between Gdynia and Jastarnia on the Hel peninsula and participated in the defense against German air raids. With the surrender of the Polish troops on October 1, 1939, the crew sank the ship in the entrance of the Hel naval port in order to block it and prevent the ship from falling into the hands of the Germans.

Tug Rixhöft of the German Navy 1940–1945

After the end of the fighting in Poland, the German Navy Recovery Group lifted the ship until the end of 1939. After the repairs in Danzig , they put the tug into service as Rixhöft in 1940 and assigned it to the Marine Equipment Center (MARS) in Gotenhafen . There the ship remained in use as a tug of the shipyard until 1945.

In March 1945, the end came: On 2 March 1945, the tractors at rushed Warnemünde the submarine U 3519 to help on a Moon dropped by British planes sea mine was over. The tug also ran into a mine and sank. Seven of the 28 crew members were rescued.

In the 1950s, the GDR authorities found the wreck . They had the remains of the ship blown up and then scrapped.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  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. ↑ a b c d Tug of the Gironde from 1821 to the present day , bordeauxaquitainemarine.org
  3. ↑ a b c d e Neumann, p. 222
  4. ↑ a b c d Gröner, p. 139
  5. ↑ a b c ORP Smok - photos and history of the ship , dobroni.pl
  6. ↑ a b ORP Smok - History of the Ship , graptolite.net
  7. ↑ a b c d Piaskowski, pp. 141f.
  8. ↑ Rohwer: naval warfare , first-31.03.1945 air war Western Europe