ORP Sokół (N97)
ORP Sokół (N97) HMS Urchin  
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| Ship data | |
| Ship type : | Submarine |
| Ship class : | U class |
| Navies : |
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| Keel laying : | December 9, 1939 |
| Launch : | September 30, 1940 |
| Commissioning: | |
| Builder : | Vickers-Armstrong ( Barrow ) |
| Whereabouts: | Scrapped in 1949 |
| Technical specifications | |
| Crew : |
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| Displacement : |
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| Length : | 58.6 m (202 ft ) |
| Width: | 4.9 m (16 ft) |
| Draft : | 3.9 m (12½ ft) |
| Drive : | |
| Speed : |
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| Driving range (surfaced): | |
| Sea endurance: | 40 days |
| Armament | |
| Artillery : | 1 × 76 mm deck gun |
| Air defense : | 2 × 7.5 mm MG |
| Torpedoes : | 4 × 533 mm Bug - torpedo tubes ; up to 12 torpedoes |
ORP Sokół (N97) was a submarine of the Polish Navy in exile during World War II . The boat was built by the Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering Ltd shipyard. The keel was laid on December 9, 1939 in Barrow-in-Furness / England . Originally the boat was intended for the Royal Navy as HMS Urchin (N97) , but was handed over to the Polish Navy shortly after completion . ORP Sokół operated like its sister boat ORP Dzik mainly in the Mediterranean . ORP Sokół and ORP Dzik were also called the terrible twins .
Mission history
Shortly after completion, the submarine was handed over to the Polish Navy on January 19, 1941. The first base was in Portsmouth . From there they patrolled the Bay of Biscay off Brest for half a year . In September the boat was ordered to Malta in the Mediterranean and assigned to the 10th submarine flotilla. Sokół took part in naval operations against the Italian ports of Taranto and Naples and escorted several British convoys in the Mediterranean.
On October 28, 1941, Sokół achieved her first battle success . The Italian auxiliary cruiser Citta di Palermo was damaged. On November 2nd, the first ship was sunk in the Gulf of Naples . The Italian merchant ship Balilla with 2,469 GRT was sunk with the deck gun .
On November 19, the boat was able to overcome the barrier nets of the port of Pylos and damaged the Italian destroyer Aviere . After the attack, ORP Sokół was unsuccessfully attacked by Italian torpedo boats and destroyers with depth charges. The fleeing submarine was able to sink a steamer (5,600 GRT) with three torpedoes.
On February 12, 1942, the Italian schooner Giuseppina (362 GRT) was boarded in the Gulf of Gabès (Kleine Syrte) and then sunk.
ORP Sokół was badly damaged in a German air raid in the port of Valletta on April 17, 1942 . The boat had to go to Blyth in England and was overhauled there.
After the repair, ORP Sokół returned to the Mediterranean in mid-1943 to continue to hunt enemy ships off the North African and Italian coasts and in the Adriatic Sea . On September 12th she rammed and sank the fishing vessel Meattini (36 GRT).
The submarine took part in the Allied blockade of the Italian ports of Naples and Pula . An ammunition transporter (probably the Eridania with 7,095 GRT) was sunk off Pula on November 8, 1943 . The schooner Argentina (64 GRT) followed three days later . Until the end of February 1944, the Polish submarine operated in the Aegean Sea from the Beirut base . Among other things, two transport ships, four schooners and a cutter were sunk there.
In March 1944, the two Polish submarines ORP Dzik and ORP Sokół were ordered to Dundee in England and assigned to the 9th submarine flotilla. After four patrols off the Norwegian coast, ORP Sokół was used as a training boat from spring 1945. The boat was used as a training target for air strikes by the Royal Air Force . In 1946 the boat was returned to British command and scrapped in 1949.
In total, ORP Sokół sank or damaged 19 enemy units with a total of approx. 55,000 GRT. All Polish commanders of the boat were awarded the Virtuti Militari order .
Polish commanders
| Period | commander |
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| January 19, 1941 - February 23, 1942 | captain marynarki Borys Karnicki |
| February 23, 1942 - March 17, 1942 | captain marynarki Jerzy Koziołkowski |
| March 17, 1942 - July 29, 1942 | captain marynarki Borys Karnicki |
| July 29, 1942 - December 12, 1944 | captain marynarki Jerzy Koziołkowski |
| December 12, 1944 - February 7, 1945 | captain marynarki Bolesław Romanowski |
| February 7, 1945 - June 17, 1945 | Porucznik marynarki Tadeusz Bernas |
| June 17, 1945 - September 29, 1945 | captain marynarki Bolesław Romanowski |
| September 29, 1945 - August 3, 1946 | Porucznik marynarki Tadeusz Bernas |
See also
- ORP Sokół (other Polish ships with the name ORP Sokół )
- List of Polish submarines (list of all Polish submarines)
- List of British submarine classes
Web links
- ORP Sokół on uboat.net (English)
- ORP Sokół at polishnavy.pl (English)
literature
- Erminio Bagnasco: Submarines in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 1996, ISBN 3-613-01252-9
Explanations
- ↑ 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 Sokół means falcon .
- ↑ HMS is the abbreviation for His / Her Majesty's Ship and the name prefix of British ships. HMS means His / Her Majesty's Ship .
- ↑ terrible twins in the means English language terrible twins .
- ↑ kapitan marynarki is comparable to captain lieutenant .
- ↑ porucznik marynarki is comparable to first lieutenant at sea .