Wisconsin-based Henry Repeating Arms this week expanded its line of high-quality double-action revolvers with a new rimfire model.
The Henry Golden Boy Revolver announced on Thursday, shares Henry’s lever-action rimfire aesthetic, featuring a deeply blued steel medium-size frame, genuine American walnut grip panels, and a highly polished brass backstrap and trigger guard. Chambered in .22 rimfire, they accept Short, Long, and Long Rifle cartridges, giving the user a bit of flexibility.
The new wheelguns will be available in both a square “Gunfighter” grip as well as an option for a Birdshead grip, and they sport 4-inch round-profile steel barrels.
While traveling around New Orleans, I often come across old French Foreign Legion insignia in antique and curious goods shops. My guess is that Francophiles and Cajuns in the area often, at one point, would sign up for life in the old Legion Etrangere and then return home at the end of the contract.
Holding their old insignia as souvenirs of places long gone, these items would eventually ebb away from them when they passed on to the great barracks in the sky. Echoes of history, I suppose.
This one is appropriate today.
Insignia of the Marching Regiment of the Foreign Legion, (Regiment de Marche de la Legion Etrangere = R.M.L.E) designed in 1943 with France Dabord (“France First”) motto:
This is the scarcer metal and enamel type insignia made for officers. It is marked Drago, Paris, and was likely manufactured in late 1944, post-Liberation.
The RMLE was created in July 1943 at Sidi-bel-Abbes, Algeria, under Colonel Gentis from the remnants of the old 1st and 3rd REIM (régiments étrangers d’infanterie de marche) which had fought against Rommel in the final days of the North African campaign, specifically at Djebel Mansour. The original “les anciens” RMLE had been formed in the Great War under the famed “father of the Legion” Colonel Paul Frederic Rollet so the name was very symbolic to Legionaries at the time.
Assigned to the 5th Armoured Division (5e DB) at Oranie, the unit was equipped with American uniforms and equipment, including Springfield M1903 bolt action rifles, and had the same general structure as the 3e REI.
Some 80 years ago today, 20 September 1944, the RMLE landed at Provence near Saint-Raphaël on Dramont beach as part of the Dragoon Landings and raced towards the Rhine, helping liberate Alsace in the process.
Along the way they fought at Belfort– where I/RMLE was decimated at Montreux-Château– helped reduce the Colmar Pocket, broke through the Siegfried Line, crossed the Black Forest, entered Stuttgart, and made it into Austria by VE Day.
13 November 1944 at Valdahon, General de Gaulle, Sir W. Churchill, Generals Juin, and de Lattre de Tassigny review a detachment of the RMLE the day before leaving for combat.
Respected by the Allied troops it fought alongside, the RMLE earned a U.S. Presidential Unit Citation and Distinguished Unit Citation (“Rhine-Bavarian Alps”).
At the end of the war, the RMLE was transferred back to North Africa. Once there, on 1 July 1945, it was renamed 3e REI.
Its regimental flag carries honors from the old RMLE of Great War fame (Artois 1915, Champagne 1915, The Somme 1916, The Verdun Mountains, Picardy-Soissonais 1918, and Vauxaillon 1918) as well as our WWII era RMLE (Alsace 1944-1945 and Stuttgart 1945) and those it has earned under its own name (Indochina 1946-1954— where the regiment lost 3,396 officers and legionnaires– and AFN 1952-1962).
80 years ago today. And then they came for the cops.
Amid an uptick of sabotage operations that saw no leads when investigated by the locals, and with the country’s army,navy, and air forces already disbanded in 1943, on 19 September 1944, the German occupation government in Copenhagen dissolved the Danish police, as the force was seen as a potential threat, was ineffective in putting down strikes and civil unrest, and an outright ally towards the growing and increasingly active Danish resistance movements.
German soldiers set up a field piece in front of the Police Station in Copenhagen during the action against the police on 19 September 1944. FHM-173508
Of the organization’s 10,000 members, the Germans were able to arrest upwards of 5,000 and eventually deport 1,960 high-ranking officers to Buchenwald– where no less than 60 died that winter under horrible conditions. This group was “upgraded” to POW status in December and 200 sick coppers were repatriated home while the other 1,700 were transferred to Stalag IV-B in East Prussia, where they would be liberated by the Soviets in April 1945. In all, almost 200 Danish police would perish in German custody during the war.
Other members of the Danish police managed to skip the country to nearby Sweden while many who stayed behind, typically under watch by the local Germans and subject to work details, moonlighted in the Danish resistance outright.
In early May 1945, they once again took to the streets in their uniforms, and resumed operations, with the first order of business: arrest local sympathizers– in particular the hated Schalburg corps and HIPO-korpset auxiliary police– and disarm German occupation troops.
Danish police back in Kolding after the capitulation May 1945 FHM-239219
Danish policemen in uniform May 1945. Note they are wearing resistance armbands and carrying Suomi
Roadblock in Copehagen. Note the British BREN gun. FHM-164100
Danish Police taking their uniforms in Carlsberg, May 1945 FHM-243918
Copenhagen police officers May 1945 FHM-19023
Police group at Cafe Strandlyst on Øresundsvej in Copenhagen after the liberation on 5 May 1945. FHM-243047
Danish Armed police in position at Amalienborg on 5 May 1945 FHM-314581
With the Germans having disbanded the King’s Lifeguards (Livgarden) the previous year, the local Copenhagen police also immediately set up a picket around Amalienborg Palace and secured the grounds.
They would remain the King’s ersatz personal bodyguard unit for six weeks until the reformed Livgarden, on 10 June 1945, marched in and relieved the bluebacks.
Changing of the guard at Amalienborg on 10 June 1945. The Life Guard replaces the police guard
Capping a 37-year career, Lt. Colonel John “Karl” Marks retired last month and hung up the title of the A-10 Thunderbolt pilot with the most flight time.
Kansas-born Marks entered the Air Force in 1987 and then went on to fly the big “Warthog” in combat for the first time in the 1991 Gulf War, chalking up 23 Iraqi tanks over three missions shared with his flight lead Capt. Eric “Fish” Solomonson.
Then-1st Lt. John Marks, poses with an A-10 Thunderbolt II at King Fahd Air Base, Saudi Arabia, during Desert Storm in February 1991. (Photo: 442nd Fighter Wing / Lt. Col. Marks) and Lt. Col. John Marks stands in the cockpit of an A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft and pumps his fists in a sign of victory after his “fini” flight on August 23, 2024, on Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. Marks retired after 37 years with more than 7500 hours in the A-10. (Photo: Mr. Bob Jennings/U.S. Air Force)
Since then, Marks has deployed overseas at least a dozen times and responded to 48 troops-in-contact situations over 358 combat sorties.
As noted by the 442d Fighter Wing in a release, Marks flew 1161 combat hours during which he expended 39,340 rounds of 30mm ammunition, dropped nearly 350 bombs, and fired 59 Maverick air-to-ground missiles. Going past that, his trigger time on the Warthog’s hulking GAU-8/A Avenger 30mm cannon included another 141,500 rounds, bringing his career total to 180,840 30mm rounds.
The GAU-8/A, made by General Electric, is a 19-foot long 7-barreled rotary cannon that fires huge 30x173mm shells— each about the size of a catsup bottle as fast as 3,900 rounds per minute. Unloaded, the gun weighs more than 600 pounds.
In all, he has logged 7,500 hours in the aircraft, a record, with the Air Force noting, “With the clock inching toward midnight on the divestiture of the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, there are no pilots close enough in hours behind the Warthog’s stick to even come close to the bar set by Lt. Col. John ‘Karl’ Marks.”
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Warship Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024: Passing the Cup Around
Netherlands Institute of Military History (NIMH) photo 2000-364-26
Above we see the business end of the Polish submarine Orzel while on the builder’s ways at NV Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde in Holland in 1937, showing her four-pack of forward 21.7 inch torpedo tubes.
Some 85 years ago this month the boat and her crew would be homeless and looking for some revenge.
The Polish submarine program
Left with only about 90 miles of coastline along the Baltic by the Versailles framers, the Polish Navy (KMW) for the 1920s was made up very simply of a half-dozen small (300-400 ton) ex-German torpedo boats, two slow ex-Russian gunboats, four flat-bottom FM-class German coastal minesweepers, and some shallow-draft river monitors.
Following a military alliance with France, it was decided to build a proper navy base, operate an near condemned French protected cruiser (ex-D’Entrecasteaux, laid down in 1894) as a stationary training ship, and start exploring options for more modern warships to include battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines with varying degrees of success.
Speaking to the final type, Warsaw cobbled together enough cash (and French-backed loans) by 1928 to buy a trio of new Normand-Fenaux-type (enlarged French Saphir class) minelayer submarines.
Trim little 1,250-ton boats that ran just 257 feet overall, they carried four bow tubes and a trainable twin tube atop the pressure hull along with the ability to carry and deploy 40 mines.
These three boats– Wilk (Wolf), Rys (Linx), and Zbik (Wildcat)– were delivered by the early 1930s from three different French yards (A C de la Loire Nantes, A C Augustin-Normand, and CNF) after significant delays and were never really successful, reportedly being noisy and prone to leaks.
Polish submarine Wilk visiting Stockholm in 1932 Fo37710C
However, the Wilks were the cradle of the Polish submarine force, and soon after the Poles in 1933 moved to order four larger submarines in two flights as a believed counter to German pocket battleships. After consulting French, British, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, and American firms for designs, the KMW went with the conjoined submission from NV Koninklijke Maatschappij De Schelde, Vlissingen and Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij.
The design was based on the one-off experimental Dutch Hr.Ms. O 16— a 1,200-ton/251-foot advanced ocean-going welded double-hulled design using high tensile St52 steel yielding a 330-foot depth rating and hydraulic surface controls while being capable of hitting 18 knots while carrying 8 torpedo tubes.
The Dutch submarine Hr.Ms. O 16 fitting out in late 1936. Note the masked 88mm gun forward of her sail. At the time of her commissioning, she was the largest submarine in the Dutch Navy. Sent to the Dutch East Indies in 1939, when war came with Japan two years later, she sank three Japanese troopships and damaged two others before she was sunk by a mine in December 1941. NIMH
The Polish boats would be larger (1,473 tons, 276 feet oal), faster (19.44 knots– capable of chasing down Russia’s Gangut-class battlewagons), and even more heavily armed with a full dozen tubes (4 bow/4 stern 550mm, and 2×2 external 533mm trainable) along with room to carry 20 steel fish.
Her plant used a pair of Dutch-licensed 6QD42 Sulzer diesel engines for surface running, another pair of Brown Boveri electric motors for subsurface, and two 100-cell batteries.
Sulzer diesel’s 2000-364-53
Big for a Baltic boat, she had a range of 7,000nm at 10 knots and could remain underway for 90-day combat patrols. The reason behind this was to allow the class the capability to conduct long-term combat operations without depending on their (few and easily seized/blockaded) bases and, to state the obvious, would allow these subs to range out of the Baltic and interdict enemy shipping (be they Russian or German) on the Atlantic in time of war.
The Poles, who had a military alliance with France at the time, went with the Wzor 1924V, which was the big 21.65-inch French STST 24V (683 pound TNT warhead, 3,300 yards @45 knots) torpedo for her in-pressure-hull tubes and, for her topside trainable tubes, the Wzor AB, a new 21-inch Whitehead steam torpedo (660-pound warhead, 3,300 yards at 47 knots) designed for use from the deck-mounted launchers of the British-made Polish Grom-class destroyers.
When it came to deck guns, whereas the Dutch O 16 had an 88mm DP gun and a twin 40mm AAA, the Orzel would go just a bit larger with a single low-angle 4.1-inch L/40 wz.36 Bofors forward in a revolving bubble-shaped mask in front of the sail and a twin Bofors atop the rear of the sail that could be lowered into a watertight shaft, augmented with a twin 13.2mm Hotchkiss heavy machine gun mount. The big Bofors had four watertight ready lockers capable of holding 21 shells between them while a magazine capable of storing another 100 rounds was located amidships under the auxiliary control room, with a chain gang passing shells forward during a prolonged surface engagement. The same magazine held 1,200 40mm shells and six boxes of 13.2mm ammo as well as small arms.
The Poles wanted four submarines and eventually ordered two, Orzel (Eagle) and Sep (Vulture) from the Dutch, with a second pair– Kuna (Marten) and Lasica (Weasel)– ordered in France to a slightly modified design (lighter steel and no deck gun) in late 1938 from AC Augustin Normand and AC de la Loire Nantes. The French pair saw work suspended on them in April 1939 and both would be destroyed on the slipways by the Germans during the war.
The cost for the planned two new Dutch-built subs was 21 million zlotych, a figure that would be satisfied in part (10 percent) by Polish agricultural products and raw materials sent to Holland, 15.44 million zlotych from the Polish government generated by bonds sold on the Warsaw Stock Exchange largely to French and British investors, and the balance, about 3.5 million zlotych, raised via a combination of public subscription into the Fundusz Obrony Morskiej(Maritime Defense Fund) to include schoolchildren’s campaigns and a 0.5 percent garnish on the pay of Polish Army and Navy’s officer and NCO corps.
As a side note, there was enough money left over from the subscription that the Polish Navy planned to order a class of 17 motor torpedo boats– one named after each of the country’s provinces– but the war intervened.
The Dutch thought the finished product was so nice that they ordered a follow-on pair of subs based on the Orzel design but with minor tweaks. The two boats, Hr.Ms. O 19 and O 20, ditched the masked deck gun design for a simpler standalone 88mm DP and reduced the number of torpedo tubes to add 10 vertical mine tubes along each side of the casing outside the pressure hull, each capable of carrying two mines. They were notably the first submarines equipped with working snorkels.
One of Orzel and Sep’s near sisters, Hr.Ms. O 20 seen entering Curacao in the Dutch West Indies in November 1939. Both O 19 and O 20 managed to escape the Germans in 1940 and sailed for the Allies during the war, being lost in 1941 and 1945, respectively. NIMH 2158_015360.
Meet Orzel
On 29 January 1936, the Polish Navy signed a contract with the Dutch submarine concern for the construction of two submarines to the modified O 16 design.
Our subject was the first of her class laid down, as Yard No. 205, at De Schelde, Vlissingen, on 14 August 1936. Her sister, Sep, was laid down three months later as Yard No. 196 at nearby Rotterdamsche Droogdok, Mij.
Orzel was launched on 15 January 1938, with 35-year-old Kmdr.ppor. (CDR) Henryk Kloczkowski, a former cadet of the Tsar’s Imperial Navy– and nephew of RADM Wacław Kloczkowski– who had graduated from the French submarine school (École de Navigation Sous-Marine) in Toulon, appointed as her first skipper.
15 January 1938. The Polish submarine ORP Orzel is being towed here by a tugboat from the shipyard to another location, after the launching festivities. On the forecastle the Dutch Chief Supervisor of the shipyard, Mr. Meerman. Saluting on the bridge the Polish naval officer (supervision for the construction kltz. Niemirski. NIMH 2000-364-34
17 October 1938, construction of the Polish submarine Sep at the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM), showing her just after launch being pulled by a yard tug. NIMH 2158_072978
By late January 1939, she had finished her builder’s trials including torpedo tests in Den Helder and speed trials in Norwegian waters in the Oslofjord, then was handed over to her Polish crew in a ceremony held on 2 February.
Matka chrzestna okrętu podwodnego ORP “Orzeł” generałowa Jadwiga Sosnkowska (z kwiatami), kontradmirał Józef Świrski, poseł RP w Holandii Wacław Babiński i gen. Stanisław Kwaśniewski w czasie wodowania okrętu.
Feb 2 1939 Orzel commissioning plankowners at the Vlissingen yard canteen 2000-364-62
2 February 1939. The consecration of the Polish submarine ORP Orzel by the chief chaplain of the Polish miners in Limburg, Father Hoffman. The boat was christened by Mrs. Jadwiga Sosnkowska, wife of General Kazimierz Sosnkowski, who was head of the Committee for Matters of Armaments and Equipment (in the photo she is arranging the flowers). During WWII, Sosnkowski would become the CiC of the Polish military in exile before he was demoted over his protests about the Warsaw Home Army being left to rot in 1944. NIMH 2000-364-33
On 5 February, the newest Polish submarine left Vlissingen and headed into the Baltic for Gdynia, arriving there on the 7th to a welcoming crowd.
Polish submarine Orzel arriving home via Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
It was there that a plaque was ceremonially unveiled, mounted on the ship’s conning tower, informing that the boat was built in part with public contributions from the FOM.
Sep joined her sister Orzel in Poland in April.
The sisters then spent the next several months on a series of shakedown cruises in the Baltic– there were clouds on the horizon.
War!
On 24 August 1939, two days after a speech from Hitler to his commanders all but saying war was inevitable with Poland, the Polish military went on alarm and began quietly mobilizing as the world slow-walked into the opening conflict of WWII over the next week.
Orzel spent that week checking and rechecking her systems, taking on a full load of torpedoes and shells, and provisioning. Her skipper was handed several sealed orders in different envelopes aligned with various plans, and some $9,000 in gold and Polish banknotes should he have to put to sea and refuel elsewhere.
By 0700 on 1 September, three hours after the start of the German invasion, Orzel left her pier and submerged in the Bay of Gdansk where she survived her first depth charging of the war that evening. Her orders, as part of the Polish Navy’s Worek Plan, were to watch for the old battlewagon KMS Schleswig-Holstein, should the pre-dreadnought leave Danzig, and put her on the bottom.
German battleship Schleswig-Holstein bombarding a Polish military transit depot at Westerplatte in the Free City of Danzig, Sept 1939. Orzel was ordered to take her out if the opportunity arose.
With Schleswig-Holstein staying put and after dodging several Kriegsmarine destroyers and being bombed several times by German aircraft while on the surface, and with a malfunctioning compressor, LT Kloczkowski decided on his own to abandon his patrol zone on the morning of 4 September and head to Swedish waters near Gotland. Claiming illness and signaling back and forth with naval command, Kloczkowski ordered his boat to Tallinn in neutral Estonia on the night of the 14th.
Once in Tallinn, on a 24-hour stay under the rules of war, the crew went ashore for baths, Kloczkowski to the hospital, and the malfunctioning compressor was sent off for local repair.
Well short of 24 hours, the Estonian gunboat Laine/Laene (ex-Russian Sputnik, 400 tons, two 75 mm L/50 Canet guns) came alongside Orzel and put a detachment of armed sailors aboard, informing the remaining officers and crew aboard that the sub was being interned.
Breakout
Orzel was untied and towed deeper into the Tallinn military port facility, flanked by two armed minelayers. Meanwhile, the Estonians seized and removed the boat’s maps, navigation log, and small arms before sealing its radio compartment.
Polish submarine Orzel at Tallinn’s military harbor. The 400-ton Estonian sidewheeler minelayers Suurop (1x 47mm gun) and Ristna, formerly the Russian Apostol Piotr and Apostol Paviel, are visible to the left. Eesti Meremuuseum MM F 7318.
The disarmament continued for the next two days with the Estonians impounding and removing Orzel’s deck gun breech, 14 of 20 torpedoes, and the shells from her magazine.
Having seen enough and unwilling to sit out the war in an Estonian internment camp, Orzel’s XO, Kpt.mar. (Lt.Cdr.) Jan Grudzinski, rallied the sub’s crew on the night of 17/18 September– 85 years ago today– and made a move to release themselves from custody.
Overpowering the two Estonian sailors on her quarterdeck and casting off at 0300 on 18 September, Orzel motored out on her quiet electrical suite until sentries on shore spotted her leaving the darkened harbor and opened fire with a 130mm coastal defense battery firing 14 shells blindly into the night. Sending the crew below, the Polish submarine submerged as soon as she had depth under her keel and headed towards the Finnish Aland Islands, with the Estonian Navy giving short and apparently half-hearted pursuit.
As for Poland’s four other submarines, sister Sep managed to make it to Swedish waters on 17 September along with the damaged submarines Rys (on the 18th) and Zbik (on the 25th) after the latter two had laid their mines. They were disarmed and interned first in Nynäshamn (Vaxholm) and then in Mariefred for the duration.
Polska ubaten ORP Sep interned in Nynäshamn, guarded by Pollux, Vedett Boat No. 52 (ex 1st class torpedo boat, b. 1909) in September 1939. Fo37714A
Only Wilk, having sown her mines, managed to skirt German dragnets then thread the Danish straits (Oresund) on 14/15 September and, once in the North Sea made for British waters.
With Orzel’s crew champing at the bit to fight rather than be interned again, and Polish exile forces in London advising that the Germans claimed her crew had killed the two Estonian sailors aboard, Grudzinski headed to Gotland as best she could without charts and put the two “resurrected” men (electrician Roland Kirikmaa and conscript sailor Boris Mahlstein) ashore in the sub’s dinghy at Östergarnsholm in Sweden on 21 September. Grudzinski had left the Estonians with $50 each, a bottle of liquor from the sub’s medicine locker, and a letter of commendation. They arranged to return home via plane before the week was out.
Orzel then turned back to sea and patrolled unsuccessfully for German ships over the next two weeks just off Oland. Lacking charts, she grounded twice during this period, sustaining some minor damage to her keel and the bow outer torpedo caps. This, coupled with chipped propeller blades and oil leaks, would seem to point to the logical move to opt for the quiet life in Sweden.
However, electing to follow in Wilk’s footsteps, Orzel then began heading West on 7 October.
The boat’s navigator, 24-year-old LT Marian Mokrski, his charts impounded, was left with only a dated German edition of the Baltic List of Lights and Fog Signals (Verzeichniss der Leuchtfeuer und Signalnstellen) and navigational tables (Nautische Tafeln). Using those, along with his personal knowledge of the Baltic Sea and its straits from previous passages (and apparently an eidetic memory), created three hand-drawn navigational charts covering the span from Leningrad, through the Strait of Oresund, and around Denmark via the Skagerrak into the North Sea. A cadet of the 1937 tranche (graduated 2nd in his class), he had previously been a sonar officer on the Wicher-class destroyer ORP Burza and had sailed on a nine-month exchange with the French on the training cruiser Jeanne D’Arc.
When they cleared Jutland and made it into the relative safety of the North Sea on 12 October, Grudzinski presented navigator Mokrski with the most valuable items on the boat– the last two cans of pineapple– and a hand-written commendation in front of the assembled crew.
Two days later, nearing the Isle of May, Orzel transmitted her recognition signals to the Admiralty and soon rendezvoused with the destroyer HMS Valorous who guided her ultimately to Dundee where Wilk was tied up undergoing repairs.
Free Polish Navy service
By December 1939, Wilk and Orzel had been rearmed with a mixture of French torpedoes and British 21-inchers in sleeved tubes, then received hull numbers (85-A for Orzel, 64-A for Wilk), picked up a few Lewis guns, and were placed under British orders by the Free Polish forces in London. As such, each sub had its crew augmented by an RN submarine force officer and two communications ratings for liaison purposes.
Orzel and Wilik in Roysth, 1940, LIFE William Vandivert
Orzel and Wilik in Roysth, 1940, LIFE William Vandivert
Orzel and Wilik in Roysth, 1940, LIFE William Vandivert
As part of the 2nd Submarine Flotilla, they were assigned to the tender HMS Forth.
Kpt.mar. Jan Grudziński, the skipper of the Polish Navy submarine ORP Orzeł seated in the boat’s fin in Scotland, 1940. IWM (HU 110081)
“Close-up of the conning tower of the Polish Navy submarine ORP Orzeł (Eagle) as she returns to her depot ship at Rosyth, 11 January 1940. Lieutenant Commander Jan Grudziński, the ship’s commander, is at the front on the right. Her pennant number (85A) has been obscured by the censor.” IWM (HU 76134)
“Gunners of the Polish Navy mine-laying submarine ORP Wilk (Wolf) manning a 100 mm Schneider 1917 gun in Rosyth, January 1940. Another submarine, ORP Orzeł (Eagle), can be seen alongside a British submarine depot ship in the background.” IWM (HU 128170)
Orzel sailed as part of the escort for Convoy ON 6 in late December 1939, then Convoy HN 6 in January 1940.
Sent out on her 2nd (1st Atlantic) War Patrol in February, she lurked off the coast of neutral Denmark for three uneventful weeks looking for German blockade runners heading into the Baltic and raiders headed out.
She was made a darling of the press, an emblem of Free Poland.
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
Orzel in Roysth, Scotland LIFE photo by William Vandivert
She repeated the Danish search in March for her 3rd War Patrol with the same result, narrowly missing seizing the German transport Helene Russ (993 GRT) in the fog on the 11th of that month.
Then came her 4th War Patrol, departing the Firth of Forth on 3 April 1940 for the waters off Lillesand, Norway.
At the same time, as part of Operation Wesserübung, the German occupation of neutral Denmark and Norway, some 1,900 German troops were allocated to capture Bergen and Stavanger under RADM Hubert Schmundt’s Kriegschiffgruppe 3. One of the transports of 1. Seetransportstaffel– loaded with 330 soldiers and Luftwaffe personnel, six 2 cm FlaK 30 and four 10.5 cm FlaK 38 anti-aircraft guns, 73 horses, 71 vehicles and 292 tons of provisions, animal feed, fuel, and ammunition– was the requisitioned Hamburg Süd freighter MS Rio de Janeiro (5177 grt).
Built by Bremer Vulkan as Santa Ines in 1914, Rio de Janeiro sailed originally out of Stettin on runs to South America and had survived the Great War because she was interned in Valparaiso for the duration, sold to Hamburg Süd by the British in 1921. Finding herself in Argentine waters in 1939 when WWII started, she only made it back to Hamburg in January 1940 by the skin of her teeth through the Royal Navy blockade– just to be impounded by the Kriegsmarine for what would turn out to be a one-way trip to Norway.
Off Lillesand on the morning of 8 April, Orzel and Rio de Janeiro bumped into each other.
0945A/8, Sighted a suspicious merchant vessel to the south. Closed to investigate. The vessel was seen to fly no ensign and was proceeding on a course of 240°. She was high in the water indicating very little cargo.
1100A/8, Closed enough to read the ships name which was Rio de Janeiro with place of registration being Hamburg.
1110A/8, Surfaced and signaled the vessel to stop which she did.
1112A/8, Ordered the vessel to sent a boat. There appeared to be very little movement on board so fired warning shots with the Lewis guns which unfortunately was the only armament available as the deck gun is still inoperative.
1120A/8, Ordered the vessel to abandon ship in 15 minutes.
1130A/8, A boat was lowered but it made very little attempt to close Orzel. So ordered the vessel once more to abandon ship and that they had 5 minutes left to do so before a torpedo would be fired.
1135A/8, Sighted a Norwegian motor boat approaching. There was still no sign of movement on board the merchant vessel.
1145A/8, Fired a torpedo while the Norwegian motorboat was still clear. a slight explosion was seen and the vessel heeled. She was still 1.8 nautical miles outside territorial waters.
1150A/8, Dived. The vessel showed no signs of sinking. More boats were seen to be lowered.
1155A/8, Sighted a Norwegian aircraft approaching. Orzel circled underwater to give the enemy crew time to pull clear before finishing off the ship with a second torpedo which blew up to ship on hitting.
About 180 Germans who survived the Rio de Janeiro sinking, were rescued by local vessels and landed at Lillesand and Kristiansand. The waterlogged and very much uniformed Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe troops freely told the Norwegians that came to their aid that they were bound for Bergen on invitation from the King’s government. The intel made its way to the Norwegian government where it was met with skepticism.
Likewise, Orzel, who came back to inspect the wreckage and found expired German soldiers adrift on the waves, reported the incident back to London.
Ordered to a different patrol zone and with the German invasion of Norway on in full force, Orzel on the 10th tangled with the German auxiliary patrol vessel V 705/ex-Carsten (258 GRT) in the Skagerrak without either side coming away damaged. She then spent the 12th through the 15th dodging a series of German bombs dropped on her while on the surface and depth charges while submerged, logging 111 ash cans and 20 bombs.
She ended her 4th patrol at Rosyth on the 19th.
“Close-up of the conning tower of the Polish Navy submarine ORP Orzeł (Eagle) as she returns to her depot ship at Rosyth after taking part in operations off Norway during which she accounted for two enemy transport ships, 19 April 1940.” IWM (HU 76132)
Her 5th War Patrol began just a week later, sent back to Norwegian waters. Unsuccessful, she returned to Rosyth on 11 May.
Orzel’s 6th Patrol, starting 23 May, would be her last. She failed to confirm receipt of signals from England on 1 June, was listed as overdue from 8 June, and feared lost on 11 June.
Her 60-man crew, along with three RN submariners– LT Keith D’Ombrain Nott, Radio Operator Walter Fordyce Green, and Telegraph Operator Leslie William Jones– are still on patrol.
Epilogue
The Cold War-era Polish Navy recycled Orzel’s name for a pre-owned Soviet-built Project 613 (Whiskey class) submarine (292, ex-Soviet S-265) that served from 1962 through 1983, and for a Project 877E (Kilo class) submarine (291) that has been in service since 1986. The latter is one of the only Warsaw Pact era subs still operational, the oldest Kilo-class submarine in active service, and the only operational submarine in the Polish Navy, having spent most of the past decade in a series of overhauls and updates.
In 2016, prewar Dutch 1:50 scale builder’s sheets for the original Orzel were restored at the Polish Navy Museum in Gdynia.
The site also has several Orzel-related exhibits including models, the Bofors guns of her sister Sep, and one of Grudzinski’s sailor’s books.
Polish Navy Museum relics of Orzel and Sep
The Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum in London, home to thousands of relics from the old Free Polish days, has several Orzel items including LT Mokrski’s hand-drawn escape charts from the 1939 Baltic breakout and her builder’s model from De Schelde.
Model of ORP Orzel presented by her Dutch constructors De Schelde 1938 PISM
Since 1942 when the Polish government in exile issued its own stamps, there have been dozens of pieces of philately with Orzel appearing on them.
Similarly, she is remembered in maritime art.
1940 ORP Orzel vs Rio Janeiro – Gregorz Nawrocki
1940 Polish submarine Orzel – Grzegorz Nawrocki
Polish submarine ORP Orzeł 8 .04.1940
She is also remembered in a variety of scale models, one of which has sat on my desk for years.
DeAgostini Atlas 1:350 scale Orzel
At least two Polish-language films, one in 1958 and another in 2022, have been produced about our subject with the first having the benefit of Orzel’s sister, Sep, standing in as a submarine double, which was odd because the latter by that time had her original Bofors gun replaced by a Soviet model.
Monuments to Orzel exist at Lillesand (the site of the Rio de Janeiro sinking), Tallin at the site of the Estonian Maritime Museum, and Gdynia. The two overseas posts are often visited by Polish naval attaches to lay wreaths and pay respects.
As for the wreck of Orzel, she has been repeatedly searched for with the SANTI Finding the Eagle (Santi Odnaleźć Orła) project mounting no less than 10 expeditions since 2014, chasing down leads. How she met her final end is unknown.
Her plank owner commander, the controversial LCDR Henryk Kloczkowski, left marooned in Estonia after Orzel escaped into the Baltic, and was arrested by the NKVD when the Soviets illegally occupied Tallinn in the summer of 1940.
Escaping the sort of final march that most other Polish officers suffered in Soviet captivity, Kloczkowski managed to attach himself in 1941 to Gen. Władysław Anders’ Polish Army in the East. Once this force was transferred to the British via the Caspian Sea and Iran in 1942, Kloczkowski was summoned to London to be brought before the Polish Maritime Court on charges over his actions on Orzel in September 1939. Demoted to the rank of sailor and given a four-year prison sentence, the latter was suspended so he could sail out on a series of American Liberty ships on dangerous Atlantic convoys. Surviving the war, he settled in Portsmouth, where he passed in 1962.
Ships are more than steel and wood And heart of burning coal, For those who sail upon them know That some ships have a soul.
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80 years ago this week, the brand new Fletcher-class tin canUSS Robinson (DD-562), a destroyer of Admiral Halsey’s Third Fleet slips along the beach at Peleliu in the Palau group on Operation Stalemate II’s D-Day, 15 September 1944.
“Her turrets trained land-ward, gun crews, and lookouts eagerly scan the beach for a Japanese pill box or gun position to blast at almost point-blank range.”
Naval History & Heritage Command Catalog # USN 46648
As noted by Robinson’sreport for the seizure & occupation of Peleliu, Angaur & Ngesebus Islands, Palau Islands, 9/12-29/44:
Close fire support of operations on a hostile beach is most effective when delivered from ranges of two to three thousand yards when five-inch and forty millimeters are used.
Keep in mind the mean draft on a Fletcher-class destroyer is 13 feet of water, so coming in that close is definitely a risk to the hull not to mention exposing the ship to Japanese guns ashore with virtually anything 13.2mm and larger able to reach out that far.
But Robinson was already a pro even though she had only been in combat for three months. A fighting greyhound that received eight battle stars for her World War II service, she had already provided naval gunfire support for the landings at Tinian in July 1944 and had bombarded Saipan the month prior in addition to other ops in the Marianas.
USS Robinson (DD-562), bow view, port side while at Puget Sound Navy Yard, 8 April 1944. Robinson was built by Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation and commissioned on 31 January 1944. Her first action, following shakedowns, was in June 1944 off Saipan– plastering enemy batteries on Beach Yellow One. NH 108351
This vessel fired 10,331 rounds of five-inch ammunition, 7,151 rounds of 40mm, and 1,719 rounds of 20mm at the enemy.
The lucky Robinson suffered no battle damage and recorded no personnel casualties during WWII.
Following honorable Cold War service including taking part in NASA recovery missions, Robinson decommissioned at Norfolk in June 1964 and was larger struck after a decade in mothballs.
She was expended as a target during a fleet exercise on April Fools Day 1982 when her luck finally ran out.
The U.S. Coast Guard spotted four Russian Navy warships on Sunday, 57 miles northwest of Point Hope, Alaska.
The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) encountered and shadowed four Russian Federation Navy (RFN) vessels 57 miles northwest of Point Hope, Alaska, on Sept. 15, 2024. The Russian Surface Action Group consisted of a Severodvinsk-class submarine, a Dolgorukiy-class submarine, a Steregushchiy–class Frigate, and a Seliva-class tug. Stratton patrolled under Operation Frontier Sentinel, a Coast Guard operation designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. (U.S. Coast Guard courtesy photo)
From USCG PAO:
While on a routine patrol in the Chukchi Sea, the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Stratton (WMSL 752) observed the RFN vessels transiting southeast along the Russian side of the Maritime Boundary Line (MBL).
The crew of the Stratton witnessed the RFN vessels cross the MBL into the U.S. Arctic and moved to observe the vessels. The Russian vessels were assessed to avoid sea ice on the Russian side of the MBL and operated according to international rules and customs as they transited approximately 30 miles into the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
“We are actively patrolling our maritime border in the Bering Sea, Bering Strait, and the Chukchi Sea, with our largest and most capable cutters and aircraft, to protect U.S. sovereign interests, U.S. fish stocks, and to promote international maritime norms,” said Rear Adm. Megan Dean, Commander of Coast Guard District Seventeen. “Coast Guard Cutter Stratton ensured there were no disruptions to U.S. interests.”
The Russian Surface Action Group consisted of a Severodvinsk-class submarine, a Dolgorukiy-class submarine, a Steregushchiy–class Frigate, and a Seliva-class tug.
The Stratton is patrolling under Operation Frontier Sentinel, designed to meet presence with presence when strategic competitors operate in and around U.S. waters. The Coast Guard’s presence strengthens the international rules-based order and promotes the conduct of operations in a manner that follows international law and norms.
Coast Guard Cutter Stratton is a 418-foot legend class national security cutter homeported in Alameda, Calif.
Meanwhile on Shemya Island…
The Russian naval group was spotted just after elements of the Alaska-based 11th Airborne Division surged a force projection task force to Shemya Island in the Western Aleutians.
The airmailed group included a HIMARS and AN/TPQ-53 (Q-53) Multi-Mission Radar, delivered via C-17 Globemaster.
HIMARS has a published range of 130 or so miles while the Q-53 is limited to closer to 30-40.
Still, it sends a message.
U.S. Army soldiers assigned to Radar Platoon, 2nd Battalion, 377th Parachute Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, orient a Q-53 Radar on Shemya Island, Alaska as part of a force projection operation, Sept. 13, 2024. The operation to the remote island in the North Pacific Ocean demonstrates the division’s ability to project power quickly and effectively, throughout the Indo-Pacific, assuring allies and partner nations in the region. (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez)
U.S. Army Soldiers assigned to Alpha Battery, 5th Battalion, 3rd Field Artillery Regiment (Long Range Fires Battalion), 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, setup communication systems for the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) as part of the 11th Airborne Division’s force projection operation to Shemya Island, Alaska Sept. 12, 2024. The division’s ability to project power quickly and effectively assures allies and partner nations in the Indo-Pacific, and is the key to the strength of partnerships and relationships in the region. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez) (Photo Credit: U.S. Army photo by Spc. Brandon Vasquez)
Brigadier General (Army of the United States, Captain in the Regular Army) James “Jumpin’ Jim” Gavin (USMA 1929), commander of the 82nd “All American” Airborne Division, checks his equipment before boarding a C-47 at Cottesmore airfield near Rutland, England for Operation Market Garden on 17 September 1944. He was in Chalk number one of Serial A-7, 316th Troop Carrier Group. The aircraft was piloted by Major Kendig, CO of the 44th Troop Carrier Squadron.
National Archives and Records Administration Still Pictures Unit SC 232810
Note his M1 Garand along with the M1911A1 on his hip and a fighting knife behind the pistol. Gavin had jumped into Sicily carrying a lighter folding M1A1 Carbine but the gun jammed on his first encounter with the enemy, leaving the general to switch to the big .30-06 battle rifle as his personal weapon moving forward.
Gavin assumed command of the 82nd the month before Market Garden on 8 August 1944, the third Commanding General of the Division during the war, after Omar Bradley who led the reformed division in 1942 when it was still a “leg” unit, and Matthew Ridgway who had commanded the All Americans in Sicily, Italy and at Normandy. Jim was the only American general officer to make four combat jumps in the war.
For the record, a lookback by the IWM on “The Bridge Too Far” that was Market Garden and the Arnheim operation.
Gavin, at age 37, was also the youngest general to command an American division during the war. He was later the youngest Regular Army lieutenant general when promoted in July 1954, at age 47.
Moreover, rather than fly Seafires or Fireflies, 1840 NAS was one of just 14 front-line FAA squadrons that flew F6F Hellcats (Gannets in RN parlance) in WWII. The FAA flew lots of American-made carrier aircraft as the Brits received Hellcats (252 F6F-3 “Mk.I” and 930 F6F-5 “Mk.II”), along with over 1,200 Wildcats (Martlets), 2,012 F4Us, FGs and F3As Corsairs (filling 18 FAA squadrons!); and even 921 TBM/TBF Avengers (Tarpons).
When stood up, 21 of 24 of its pilots were Dutch.
Group photo of personnel of No.1840 Naval Air Squadron FAA in front of a Grumman Hellcat. Seated from left to right: Boon von Ochssée, Simpson, Nauta, Poublon, Herckenrath, Van Dongen, Greve, De Wit, Saltykoff, Helfrich; Standing: from left to right: Turner, Percy, Mogride, Zegers de Beyl, Laufer, Limque, Philips (Capt. RM Air Liaison Officer), Richardson (CO), Barber (Maj Air Liaison Officer), Schwencke, Volkertsz, Twijsel, La Bree, Moekardonoe. 6 June 1944. NIMH 2182-092-005
Fleet Air Arm 1840 NAS Hellcat Mk. I White H JV117 based at RNAS Eglinton Northern Ireland 23 June 1944 IWM A24533
The Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat fighter aircraft named ‘Margie’ of the 1840 Naval Air Squadron (1840 NAS). This was the wife of officier vlieger der 3e klasse JE Helfrich. 2158_084090
Nederlandse vliegers bij de Britse Fleet Air Arm (FAA) F6F 1840 sqn. NIMH 2182-092-006
Stood up in March 1944 at RNAS Burscough, by July of that year, 1840 NAS was flying their F6F-3s from the venerable old HMS Furious (47).
Furious would soon sortie against occupied Norway in Operation Offspring (minelaying), and Operations Mascot and Goodwood against Tirpitz. It was in the latter that squadron leader “Arch” Richardson would burn in, replaced by Cdr (A) B. H. C. Nation, RN.
Shifting gears, 1840 NAS learned how to land on postage stamps and shipped out to the British Pacific Fleet on the escort carrier HMS Speaker (D 90). As many of the Dutch members were born and raised in the Dutch East Indies, they were headed home so to speak.
1840 NAS on HMS Speaker in Aden, 28 January 1945, on the way to join the British Pacific Fleet. NIMH 2158_083030
These Royal Navy Grumman F6F-3 Hellcats belonged to HMS Speaker, an escort carrier based in Sydney. The aircraft were stationed at RANAS Nowra. #166 was the aircraft of S/Lt. H. Moekardanoe. NIMH 2158_084091
Following losses off Okinawa, 1840 NAS was disestablished and broken up on 27 April 1945, with its more experienced men chopping to 1839 NAS aboard the armored carrier HMS Indomitable while the JV team went to 885 NAS on the jeep carrier HMS Ruler.
Post-war, many of the Dutch Hellcat drivers from 1840 NAS went on to serve in the MLD and Dutch Air Force.
Jan Gijsbert Boon von Ochssse, seen with his 1840 NAS Hellcat, “Dinahmite!” Von Ochssee, born in Yogyakarta in 1921, was in the 1939 conscription class and joined the Marineluchtvaartdienst in the Dutch East Indies as a reserve pilot cadet. Sgt. Von Ochssee managed to escape to Australia in February 1942 when Java fell to the Japanese and, earning his wings in Jackson, joined 1840 NAS in April 1944. His first air-to-air victory was on a German Arado during the raid on Tirpitz. Earning the Dutch Vliegerkruis (Flying Cross) during WWII, he rejoined the MLD proper on 25 September 1945 and retired from the service in 1965.
A silly relic of the 1989 California, and subsequent 1994 AWB below: the bayonet-neutered SKS. For a decade it was legal to sell the otherwise featureless rifle, with its 10-shot internal magazine, so long as the bayonet was dismounted.
You could still buy the bayonet as a curio – usually on the same table as the SKS at the gun show. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
