ORP Mazur was a torpedo boat

Torpedo boat

A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval vessel designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs rammed enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes, and later designs launched self-propelled Whitehead torpedoes. They were created to counter battleships and other large, slow and...

, then gunnery training ship of the Polish Navy

Polish Navy

The Marynarka Wojenna Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej - MW RP Polish Navy, is the branch of Republic of Poland Armed Forces responsible for naval operations...

. She was the former German torpedo boat V-105. She took part in the Polish Defensive War

Invasion of Poland (1939)

The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...

 and was sunk by German bombers on September 1, 1939, as the first combat ship in the war.

History

She was built in 1914 by Stettiner Maschinenbau A.G. Vulcan in Stettin, Germany (now in Poland). She was begun for a Dutch Navy order, as Z-1 (along with three sisterships Z-2 - Z-4), but after the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 she was confiscated by Germany and commissioned as torpedo boat V-105. During a division of the German ships after the war in December 1919, Poland was assigned only six torpedo boats, due to a reluctance of the British to strengthen new born navies. The V-105 was first assigned to Brasil, but then bought by a British dockyard and finally exchanged with Poland for other torpedo boat, A-69, needed for spares, in 1921, for extra charge £900 from the Poles. Poland also received her sistership, V-108 as well (later the Polish ORP Kaszub

ORP Kaszub (1921)

ORP "Kaszub" - torpedo boat , one of the first ships of the Polish Navy recreated after Poland regained its independence in 1918. In service from 1921 to 1925....

), and four smaller torpedo boats. V-105 was in a bad condition and after some repairs in Rosyth

Rosyth

Rosyth is a town located on the Firth of Forth, three miles south of the centre of Dunfermline. According to an estimate taken in 2008, the town has a population of 12,790....

, in September 1921 she was towed from Great Britain to Gdańsk

Gdansk

Gdańsk is a Polish city on the Baltic coast, at the centre of the country's fourth-largest metropolitan area.The city lies on the southern edge of Gdańsk Bay , in a conurbation with the city of Gdynia, spa town of Sopot, and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area called the...

.

Polish service

After a refit, she was commissioned in the Polish Navy on August 2, 1922 under the name ORP Mazur (named for the Mazurian

Mazurians (ethnic group)

The Masurians or Mazurs or Masurs are a Lechitic sub-ethnic group in the Masovian and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships in Poland. They are descended from Masovians , Polish settlers from Masovia who moved to Prussia especially during and after the Protestant Reformation and were primarily Protestant...

 people). She served in a Torpedo Boat Unit (Dywizjon Torpedowców) and wore identification letters MR. In 1931 she was rebuilt as a gunnery training ship, and her armament changed. From 1935 she underwent a modernization, during which the ship lost a second funnel, returning to service in 1937.

Demise

On the first day of World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, September 1, 1939, ORP Mazur, commanded by Lieutenant Tadeusz Rutkowski, was in a port of Oksywie

Oksywie

Oksywie is a neighbourhood of the city of Gdynia, Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland. Formerly a separate settlement, it is actually several centuries older than the city it is a part of currently.-Etymology:...

. At 2 pm she was at a pier, preparing to leave port, when she was attacked by German Junkers Ju 87

Junkers Ju 87

The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka was a two-man German ground-attack aircraft...

s from IV./LG.1. The ship suffered one close hit and a hit amidships, and sunk still firing at the German aircraft. The sailor, who although the ship was sinking, still fired until waves washed him overboard was First Lieutenant Jacek Dehnel, grandfather of the famous polish poet and writer Jacek Dehnel

Jacek Dehnel

Jacek Dehnel in Gdańsk, Poland) is a Polish poet, writer, translator and painter. Dehnel studied at Warsaw University in the MISH College and graduated from the Polish Language and Literature department...

. About 40 of the crew were killed. She was one of the first two ships sunk during the war, the other was an auxiliary ship (divers' tender) ORP Nurek. The wreck was scrapped by the Germans.