ORP Sep
Encyclopedia
For the second ORP Sęp serving in the Polish Navy since 2002, see ORP Sęp (2002).
ORP Sęp was a serving in 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...
during 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...
. In Polish
Polish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
her name means Vulture.
Construction
Built at the DutchNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
Rotterdamse Droogdok Maatschappij, she was laid down in November 1936 and launched on 17 October 1938. In early 1939 the Polish team supervising the building of the ship noticed a significant slowdown in her construction, which it attributed to the action of German agents. Because of fears that German pressure on Holland would prevent that country from delivering the ship into Polish hands, it was decided to bring the ship to Poland earlier than scheduled. On April 2nd, the ship left for deep water sea trials in Horten
Horten
is a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the villages of Borre, Åsgårdstrand, Skoppum, and Nykirke....
, Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, with a crew of Polish sailors and Dutch technicians, under the Dutch flag . After completing the trials, the Polish crew took control of the ship (against the will of the Dutch technicians on board), raised the Polish flag and left Horten to rendezvous with the Polish destroyer ORP Burza
ORP Burza
ORP Burza was a of the Polish Navy which saw action in World War II.-History:ORP Burza was ordered on 2 April 1926 from the French shipyard Chantiers Naval Francais together with her sister ship Wicher...
outside the harbour. All but two Dutch workers were left ashore in Norway . From Burza the submarine received additional crew and supplies, then sailed under her escort to Poland. On the way the ship ran out of diesel fuel and had to be taken in tow by the destroyer. On April 18 Sęp arrived in Gdynia, entering the harbour on her electric engines, and was officially commissioned into the Polish navy . The remaining two Dutch technicians were released and allowed to return home. The fitting out of the ship continued in Poland, with parts arriving from Holland after the relations with the Dutch were repaired following the "hijacking", but was not finished before the war broke out, hence the ship was not at full readiness in September 1939. A visit to Rotterdam to finish the fitting out was contemplated but the outbreak of war prevented it .
World War II
Sęp sailed into the naval port of HelHel, Poland
Hel is a town in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, located on the tip of the Hel Peninsula, some 33 kilometres from the Polish mainland.-Early developments:...
a few days before the war started, commanded by kmdr ppor.
Lieutenant Commander
Lieutenant Commander is a commissioned officer rank in many navies. The rank is superior to a lieutenant and subordinate to a commander...
Władysław Salamon. On September 1st, the first day the war, the submarine took up her patrol sector in accordance with the Worek Plan
Worek Plan
The Worek Plan was an operation of the Polish Navy in the first days of World War II, in which its five submarines formed a screen in order to prevent German naval forces from carrying out landings on the Polish coast, and to attack enemy ships bombarding Polish coastal fortifications, in...
. On 2 September she attacked a German destroyer Friedrich Ihn (Z14) with a single torpedo which missed, with the destroyer responding with heavy depth-charging which damaged the submarine, causing water leaks. On 3 September Sęp was attacked again and suffered more damage, which caused more leaks into the ship. With her position clearly revealed to the enemy, the submarine left her assigned sector and began to sail in the direction of Gotland Island. Over the next few days she operated without contact with the enemy in the vicinity of Sweden, her crew trying to repair the damage, and her captain requesting permission to return to base in order to carry out more repairs, which was denied.
On September 13 the submarine received orders permitting her to sail to England if possible, and otherwise to be interned
Internment
Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...
in a neutral Swedish
Sweden during World War II
Sweden during World War II maintained a policy of neutrality. When the Second World War began on September 1, 1939, the fate of Sweden was unclear...
port. The crew at first decided to sail for England but over the next few days the ship's condition deteriorated further , with serious leaks into the ship when submerged, and the submerging itself taking up to 30 minutes, unacceptably long if the ship was to successfully pass through German patrols on the way to England. On September 15 her commander decided to sail for Sweden. On September 17 the submarine appeared off Stockholm and requested permission to enter the harbor to carry out repairs. These were clearly so extensive that they could not be finished in the limited time allowed under international law, so the submarine's commander decided that the ship should be interned by the Swedish authorities. In late September the ship was disarmed and her propulsion systems disabled.
In early 1940 attempts were made for Sęp and the two other interned Polish submarines to be released by Sweden and allowed to proceed to Britain, after necessary repairs. However, with German wartime successes, particularly the German occupation of Norway, the possibility of Sweden allowing such a move receded. The Polish submarines were moved around various Swedish ports in the course of the war, and even received maintenance work, but were not allowed to leave.
Post-war service
After the war ended, on June 23, 1945 a Polish Military Commission arrived in Sweden to arrange for the return of the interned submarines to Poland. On September 5 the submarines officially passed under Polish control, and after repair work left Sweden on October 21, and reached the Polish coast on October 25.On November 30, 1945 Sęp was again officially commissioned into the Polish Navy. In 1946 she was rearmed with Soviet caliber torpedoes and guns. In 1951 eight crew members were accused of plotting to defect with the ship to Sweden, and were prosecuted in a Stalinist show trial
Show trial
The term show trial is a pejorative description of a type of highly public trial in which there is a strong connotation that the judicial authorities have already determined the guilt of the defendant. The actual trial has as its only goal to present the accusation and the verdict to the public as...
. In a 1959 Polish film
Orzeł (film)
Orzeł is a Polish black and white war movie based on the true story of the Polish World War II submarine ORP Orzeł. Since the real Orzeł was sunk in the war, to assure authenticity her role was played by her sister ship, the ORP Sęp.-Cast:...
the ship was used to portray her twin ORP Orzeł. In 1959 the submarine became a training ship. She remained the largest submarine of the postwar Polish Navy until 1962 when it commissioned the first of four Soviet-built Whiskey class submarine
Whiskey class submarine
Whiskey-class submarines are a class of naval submarines that the Soviet Union built in the early Cold War period.-Design:...
s, which were of similar size. In 1964 she suffered a serious fire (8 crewmembers died), after which she was repaired, but was not fully operational. In 1969 the ship suffered another accident while submerged. The ship was decommissioned on 15 September 1969 and subsequently scrapped in 1972.
In 2002 the Polish Navy commissioned the second ORP Sęp, a Kobben class submarine
Kobben class submarine
The Kobben class or Type 207 is a version of the German Type 205 submarine customized for use by the Royal Norwegian Navy.- History :...
obtained from Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
.