ORP Wilk
Encyclopedia
ORP Wilk was the lead boat
Lead ship
The lead ship or class leader is the first of a series or class of ships all constructed according to the same general design. The term is applicable military ships and larger civilian craft.-Overview:...
of her class
Wilk class submarine
Wilk class submarines of the Polish Navy included three boats: ORP Wilk, ORP Ryś and ORP Żbik. They served from 1931 until 1955. The boats were built in France....
of mine
Naval mine
A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, an enemy vessel...
-laying submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s 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...
. The ship saw service in the Polish Navy from 1931 to 1951. Her name meant "Wolf" 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...
.
History
Wilk was laid down in 1927 at Chantiers Augustine Normand shipyard at Le HavreLe Havre
Le Havre is a city in the Seine-Maritime department of the Haute-Normandie region in France. It is situated in north-western France, on the right bank of the mouth of the river Seine on the English Channel. Le Havre is the most populous commune in the Haute-Normandie region, although the total...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. Launched on April 12, 1929, she was commissioned into 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...
on 31 October 1931.
When 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...
began on September 1, 1939, Wilk, commanded by Captain Boguslaw Krawczyk, took part in 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...
for the defence of the Polish coast, operating in Gdańsk Bay
Gdansk Bay
Gdańsk Bay or the Bay of Gdańsk or Danzig Bay is a southeastern bay of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the adjacent port city of Gdańsk in Poland and is sometimes referred to as a gulf.-Geography:...
. On September 2 she spotted a destroyer Erich Steinbrinck
German World War II destroyers
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the German Navy, the Kriegsmarine, had 21 destroyers . These had all been built in the 1930s, making them modern vessels...
, but could not attack it, because she fell herself under attack of minesweepers
Minesweeper (ship)
A minesweeper is a small naval warship designed to counter the threat posed by naval mines. Minesweepers generally detect then neutralize mines in advance of other naval operations.-History:...
(the German report on firing a torpedo at Steinbrinck is not confirmed by the Polish). On September 3 she deployed her mines as planned. On September 4 and 5 the Wilk was under continuous depth charge attacks and had to lay on the sea bottom during daytime, suffering minor damage. During next days, attempts at attacking enemy shipping were unsuccessful. Then she left the Polish coast, successfully passing the Danish straits
Danish straits
The Danish straits are the three channels connecting the Baltic Sea to the North Sea through the Kattegat and Skagerrak. They transect Denmark, and are not to be confused with the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland...
(Oresund
Oresund
The Sound , is the strait that separates the Danish island Zealand from the southern Swedish province of Scania. Its width is just at the narrowest point between Helsingør, Denmark, and Helsingborg, Sweden...
) on September 14/15, escaping from the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
and arriving in Great Britain on September 20. Only ORP Orzeł
ORP Orzeł
Three boats of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Orzeł :* ORP Orzeł was an commissioned in 1939 and lost in 1940.* ORP Orzeł was a commissioned in 1962 and decommissioned in 1983....
managed to accomplish the same feat later; the other three Polish submarines were interned in neutral Sweden.
On December 7, 1939 one of the mines laid by the submarine in September sank a German fishing boat MFK Pil 55 Heimat (13 GRT) at position 54°37′05"N 19°47′00"E.
On June 20, 1940 at 0.25 am, the ORP Wilk rammed an unidentified object at position 56°54′N 03°30′E. There was a long dispute upon this incident. The 2nd in command Sub.Lt. Bolesław Romanowski claimed in his memoires "Torpeda w celu", that it was a German U-boot. Supporters of this version suggested, that it might have been U-22, lost some time earlier. Some suggested, that it might have been an Allied Dutch submarine O13, also lost at sea around that time. However, according to newest analysis of Wilk's damages and all reports, the object was most likely a buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...
, since both Wilk's propellers got damaged, while a rudder
Rudder
A rudder is a device used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft or other conveyance that moves through a medium . On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw and p-factor and is not the primary control used to turn the airplane...
and rudder's connector below them, was intact, which was unlikely in case of ramming a submarine.
She undertook nine patrols from the British bases, without success. The last patrol was between 8 and 20 January 1941, then the submarine was assigned to training duties. Due to her poor mechanical shape, ORP Wilk was decommissioned as a reserve submarine on April 2, 1942.
On 28 September 1946 ORP Wilk was given under the British control by the Polish Government in Exile. The submarine remained laid up at Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
. Because of her poor condition, only in October 1952 she was towed to Poland. She was declared unfit to service, decommissioned from the Polish Navy, and scrapped in 1954.
A second ORP Wilk, a Foxtrot class submarine
Foxtrot class submarine
The Foxtrot class was the NATO reporting name of a class of diesel-electric patrol submarines that were built in the Soviet Union. The Soviet designation of this class was Project 641....
, served in the Polish Navy from 1987 to 2003.