Mountaineer of the ORP ‘Grif’

In the fire of Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine

ORP "Griff" belonged, alongside the destroyer ORP ‘Wicher’, to those navigating warships that Naval Command assigned to defend the Coast in the coming war. The remainder of the Polish destroyers of the last day of peace sailed to allied Britain. Sailors of all Polish warships well before their colleagues in the land formations of the Polish Army realized that war was inevitable. Already in the summertime months of 1939, the service on Polish ships looked like the war had just lasted. Battlewatches, continuous observations, and anti-aircraft emergency have been deployed. The stops in the ports were very short, and sailors were only released to land for a fewer hours, only during the day. At sea, German aircraft and convoys of ships and transports to East Prussia were increasingly encountered. Clearly, as experienced sailors utilized to say, both fleets “sniffed” before the attack.

Freshly admitted to the service, like Stanisław Pyrek, they had no time to meditate during the increased training. They were subjected to the old military rule that the more sweat in the exercise, the little blood during the war, although as for blood, on the "Griff" did not work. At dawn on September 1, 1939 The “Griff” standing on Oxyw was a dense fog. The wake-up call came as usual at six o'clock. After prayer and breakfast, the sailors began their service erstwhile they abruptly heard the roar of German aircraft. They have already distinguished them well from their own, for in the past fewer weeks there has been almost a day for any Luftwaffe device not to "walk" over the ship. However, the anti-aircraft alarm was not immediately announced, as the Fleet Command received information from the Army staff “Torun” about the planned flight of 3 Polish aircraft. The flight time and way were right, but the ranger had no doubt: “Three German bombers, 500 meters high, are coming consecutive at us!” It was only then that the order was given: “To the cannon!” and the airmen opened fire, but the planes had long gone towards Gdynia. Only the dense fog then saved the Griff from this raid.

The fact that the war has been going on for respective hours now, for the crew of the miners became clear erstwhile a German aircraft, most likely 1 of those which they heard this morning, was shot by a returner from Hel by an ORP tugboat “Sailboat”. The captains of the ships standing inactive in the Oxivian port immediately issued an order to sail. The commander of the “Griffa” was no different than Lieutenant Commander Stefan Kwiatkowski. His ship usually utilized 2 tugs at the entrance and exit of Oxyvia, but this time he sailed on his own. The ship had a full cast of mines on board due to the fact that its task was to put Minesteads in the Gulf of Gdańsk. However, as early as 10 o’clock, it was tracked by enemy airmen, and the key with deadly cargo began from that point on. This ended in the afternoon with the large air-sea conflict in the Gulf of Gdańsk, where the "Grif" became the main hero. At about 6:00 p.m., erstwhile the second watch began its service, and the ship was about 3 nautical miles from Hel, the sky swarmed with fine arts. The "Griff" together with the thousand-metre-long "Wichrem" formed a cross-fired barrier section to defend both ships and respective insignificant units along with them. However, that was not adequate to drive distant German divers. Bombs were falling closer and closer to the “Griff” side, and its deck was caught in the fire of device guns – a fatal duel began. Sailor Pyrek was on board the ship at that time, and that minute he dreamed for the remainder of his life.

In the Face of Death

The deck immediately bled with blood, and on the embankments lay scattered remains of his colleagues who did not escape the hail of missiles and shrapnel. Already in the first attack a series of device guns mowed the captain's commander Lieutenant Kwiatkowski standing on the bridge. At this point, command on the ship took over 1 of the Petty Officers. Fearlessly directed the fire of anti-aircraft weapons, but yet he was badly wounded. His arm was torn off, but then he clenched his pants strap on the stump and gave orders to the airmen for an hour. abruptly the ship was shaken by a massive explosion. It seemed that 1 of the bombs hit the Griff directly, fortunately it detonated in the water just off the port. This caused further casualties in humans and serious damage, including the helm cut, but the ship was moving on, maneuvering ahead of the planes utilizing the bikes themselves. If this were a direct hit, 300 minutes would have gone up, which would have ended for the Griff crew.

After the raid, the ship looked like a slaughter massacre. At the first section, he was inactive in combat readiness 1 of the canoniers, but without the head, clinging to the cannon lock. In the hallways, those who could stay on their feet had their ankles in their blood. For the wounded, there was neither a shadow of rescue – they were dying in the infirmary. Among another things, he died from a blood flow from a leg cut off by a shrapnel ship commander, Lieutenant Commander Stefan Kwiatkowski. The ship was all chopped up with shrapnel of bombs and missiles from a deck gun, but inactive capable of fighting. His crew turned out to be a worthy flagman defending the Polish Coast.

There were no signs of panic or insubordination but for 1 exception. It turned out to be an officer who, 1 day before Lieutenant Commander Stanislaw Hryniewicki, took command of the “Griff” after the death of Lieutenant Commander Kwiatkowski. It was his deputy, Captain Viktor Wachtang-Lomiga, a contract officer from Georgia. During the raids he was tense and hid under the lowest deck. But that was not the worst, due to the fact that at the time of his short command with the ship Captain Wachtang-Lomigze made a controversial decision to throw all the cargo of unarmed mines into the sea, which caused the "Grif" to become only a floating artillery battery. After being wrapped in the port of Helsinki, the "Grif" was an easier mark for German bombers. After respective raids, the evening of September 3rd Luftwaffe "Griff" struck – his wreckage burned for another 2 days, but not everything from the ship was lost. His next commander, Lieutenant Commander Hryniewecki, ordered the cannons to be dismantled from the deck to strengthen Hel's land defence. Stanislaw Pyrek, who was fortunate all the time, due to the fact that he was not even scratched, was promoted to elder sailor on September 10 for honoring himself in removing his cannon. But he had a dangerous crossing with Captain Wachtang-Lomiga. The order for the dismantling of weapons and equipment from the ship Hryniewiecki issued to the sailors before officially taking command of the "Griff" at the hands of Georgian. So erstwhile the captain saw Pyrek smash 1 of the cabinets in the officer's mess hall, he ordered him immediately to court martial for destroying Navy property. The sailor almost died from firing squad bullets made up of his own colleagues! Upon trial, he explained that he was following orders from his superior. Troubled officers fired him, but paradoxically, at the minute he was closer to death than under the fire of German aircraft...

Miners from the ORP "Griff". The Pyrk household archive.

Speedy sailor

The sailors “Griffa” after leaving for the mainland fed the crew of Helu. The elder sailor Pyrek became a tape coil. However, the highlander of Lusławic most remembered he carved himself out of the full defence of the peninsula day of surrender – October 2, 1939. Soldiers of the Fortified Hel territory alongside Lieutenant General Francis Kleeberg from The “Poles” Independent Operations Group They persisted the longest in the conflict with Polish aggressors, but for many of them the decision to surrender did not bring any relief. Young people, specified as Pyrek, were told to go into captivity. They unloaded them unexpectedly after the demolition. erstwhile the defenders marched between a spatter of smiling, drunken Germans, who did not spare Polish soldiers the scraps and names, abruptly respective of them broke out of the prisoner column. These daredevils approached the bewildered enemies, unzipped their pants and usually pissed on them. no of the German soldiers even moved. There was any superhuman indifference in the captives, as if all fear of death had evaporated from them during the fight. Those wet Germans could easy have shot the arrogant. And they were counting on it! For death was not a terrible thing to them at the time of defeat, but a salvation. However, German soldiers were not provoked, and their officers saluted, stressing that they appreciate the heroic attitude of the Hel crew.

Germany and otherwise appreciated the defenders of the peninsula. Pyrka and his companions were held in the Torun fortress for almost a year under very dense conditions. 1 of his colleagues advised him not to admit that he was a specialist on a ship, but to keep that he was an agricultural individual in a civilian. This most likely saved his life, as many of the "Griff" sailors later died in the bombing of industrial plants where they were forced to work.

Father's forge

Pyrek as an ‘agricultural worker’ went to a farm in Krefeld close Düsseldorf. erstwhile again, he was fortunate due to the fact that his hosts proved to be old, good people. This was demonstrated by the fact that he had shared meals with them, and this was officially forbidden. He besides had his own area in the attic, and he never lacked food, unlike those of his colleagues who went to factories in cities where they frequently starved in mill barracks. But here besides Pyrek experienced the horror of war. Like a young soldier who was sniffing dust on the battlefield a short time ago, he refused to perceive to the instructions of 1 of the German watchmen. The sailor pretended not to hear the econom shouting until he yet ran up to him and ripped the hoe out of his hand. At this point, the right-wing pyre put the German on the ground.

The Gestapo came immediately. The Polish Gestapo wanted to shoot him unconsciously, but his host managed to ask them to forgive him, explaining his "jump" in a young age. This experience sobered Pyrek and paradoxically made him realize that he wanted to live. On May 1941, he brought him unexpected salvation from slavery. Circumstances of this exemption show how terrible poorness prevailed in the Polish village at the time. Namely Pyrka was released due to the fact that Joseph Karpiel declared himself to work in Germany. Joseph came from a neighbouring village with the Lusławics, where Sister Pyrka lived. Stanislaw wrote letters to her, in which he calmed her down, and it is actual that he did not deficiency food. And the neighbour of Karpiel, having learned of the conditions of her brother in captivity, declared himself to be a voluntary replacement. On the approval of the German authorities to return the prisoner Pyrek to his home, the fact that his father needed a helper in the forge, where the Germans from the Zakliczyński garrison undercut the horses was influenced.

When Stanisław Pyrek returned home, as a sailor released from captivity, he was immediately under the peculiar supervision of the gendarmes and Gestapo from Zakliczyn, so he had nothing to think about. He survived the war as an aide to his father in the forge, and after 1945 he worked, among others, as a welder. He never managed to meet any of his ORP colleagues “Griff”. Only once, in the mid-1960s, he heard in a radio performance a wishful message that “a friend from the “Griff” ship, presently surviving in London, sends Stanisław Pyrk cordial greetings.” All this, but for a fewer photographs, a military book, a naval tin cup, and a colorful postcard with the image of a arrogant ship whose deck was washed with the blood of his heroic crew.

Based on the author's book "I survived the war... The Last Soldiers of Fighting Poland".