Post Description

voor de liefhebbers van Poolse duikboten in Nederland gebouwd :)

Warship Vol.42 (1987)
Index: see front cover

The Orzel class was a short series of modern submarines built in Dutch shipyards for the Polish Navy in the 1930s. Initially the design was to be built in the United Kingdom, but the price proposed was too high and the British Admiralty announced that building a fast submarine with over 20 knots (37 km/h) of surface speed was technically impossible. The two submarines ordered, the ORP Orzel and ORP Sep (four were initially planned), were eventually based on the Dutch O-19 class submarine, but were significantly modified to fit the Polish specifications for a multi-purpose vessel to be used both on shallow waters of the Baltic Sea and in the high seas. They were among the most modern submersibles in the allied fleets at the outbreak of World War II. Their speed was 19.5 knots (36 km/h).

Orzel was ordered in 1935 and commissioned in February 1939. On 14 September 1939 the Orzel and Wilk were ordered to make for British ports. Wilk arrived on 20 September 1939 and Orzel arrived on 14 October 1939 (after an adventurous voyage with no charts). On 08 April 1940 Orzel sank two large troop transports at the start of the German invasion of Norway. Orzel was lost in a mine barrage off the Norwegian coast on 08 June 1940. Wilk attacked and sank a Dutch submarine in error on 20 June 1940.

Spot info:
Series: Warship
Author: Andrew D. Lambert
Publisher: Conway Maritime Press
Year: 1987
Language: English
Pages: 68
Format: PDF
Size: 6,2 mb

Thanks to nerusik & Silent Running :)