Since the very beginning of its existence, the Polish Navy has aroused peculiar emotions in our society as a arrogant guardian of the Coast and our part of the Baltic. But who could at that time say that this tiny fleet would gain specified large publicity in the battles of the seas and oceans in planet War II – especially in this largest and frequently underestimated conflict of the Atlantic.
Józef Czechowicz described the last moments of the submarine crew hit by a deep-sea bomb in the poem “the darker red lights/shrinks the harsher breath/motor raging at 400 amper/overloaded silent/ already surrendered//self/// in tube cables the sailors hung without movement/silence suffocating a terrible visitor/in the breath/ flood the temple of the fiery mane/brotherly breast with the breast/ in the net of broken wires or in the rays/ officers the song starts first/ and the boat turns into a song/// and eagles red in the eyes of the atmosphere/ach so is dying”.
This song hides much more meanings, but I deliberately emphasize this basic one, due to the fact that the "day" is very powerfully associated with the destiny of the Eagle ORP crew. His sailors, whose youth fell upon the years born after the captivity of Poland and the apocalypse of 1939 – having tasted war horror and fame – died in mysterious circumstances and rested in the sarcophagus of their ship somewhere on the bottom of the North Sea. To this day there is simply a search for the wreckage of Eagle and discussions about the course of its last patrol. Thanks to the bravado escape from internment in Tallinn and break into the UK, then the fight in the Norwegian run and mentioned disappearance during the cruise in the North Sea of the ORP "Earl" undoubtedly became the most celebrated ship of the tiny submarine fleet of the Second Republic. It was written a lot, 2 feature films were shot. Even the subsequent accomplishments of the “terrible twins” OORP “Wik” and “Solk” in the Mediterranean have failed to declassify its fame.
The fame is the most well-deserved and surely about this beautiful and modern ship there will be a number of publications or films, and further expeditions will be set out to search for it. But we in this issue present a ship that not only shared conflict cruises in British waters or in the North Sea, but besides recorded a beautiful conflict card in 1939, and after fighting Kriegsmarine in the Baltic, it besides "miracles" entered Britain. It is worth noting that, compared to the Eagle, it was already an obsolete and exploited unit. We are talking about the underwater mine stander ORP “Wilk” and his brave crew under the command of Lieutenant Commander Bogusław Krawczyk. The communicative “Wilka” is presented by 1 of the leading sailors in Poland Mariusz Borowiak.
We utilized a akin key for our water-based “predators” – destroyers bearing the name of the air elements. Indeed, the glorious cards have written down and won the well-deserved fame of OORP “Burza”, “Grom”, “Pyorun” or “Blind”, whose beautiful figure we can inactive admire in the port of Gdynia. Of course, we mention them, but we first bring to the set the stories of ships, which were ordered to stay in the native ports and defend the Polish sea. The speech about the water pride of the fleet of the Second Republic of Poland – the mine stander of the ORP "Grif" and intended to be protected by the ORP "Wicher" – the first countertorpeditor, as was then called destroyers, the Polish Navy. Both ships fought a dramatic conflict with the overwhelming forces of Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe at the very beginning of the war, and many of the sailors rushed to the last days of the Polish campaign. We will learn about the ORP "Griff" from the position of Lieutenant Stanislaw Pyrk, who in 2019 was the last of the crew of that ship to go on an eternal watch. On the another hand, “big days of the tiny fleet” during the planet War II maritime campaigns, we present the past of the ORP “Garland” which took part in highly dramatic convoys through “Ice Hell” – to Murmansk.
Notice the photograph reproduced on the cover of this issue. We see smiling signalers – Polish and British – in the first days of service on the ORP “Piorun”. However, 1 of them has the inscription "Grom" on the cap. It is no accident, for it was the crewmen of the “Groma” who survived the demolition of their ship by the Luftwaffe in the Norwegian fjord on 4 May 1940. Absolutely after this sailor there is no dramatic trauma from the “Groma” in the navy, 1 had to rapidly shake off before serving on a fresh deck. In the case of the Polish Navy, decks of ships were part of the Polish territory, which never got under German or russian occupation. It's worth remembering. Czechowicz ends the poem with the phrase “down” with the phrase “at a depth of 1 100 metres we have finished young people/ equalized past and future centuries.”
The closing 2025 was a year of circular and crucial anniversary, including the end of planet War II and the coronation of Bolesław Chrobry as King of Poland. He was Patron of 2025 General Kazimierz Sosnkowski. This first anniversary is devoted almost to the full number 1/2025, in this issue of the beginnings of the Kingdom of Poland we are talking with the distinguished mediorist Prof. Krzysztof Ożog, and about the Chief Head of the Polish Armed Forces writes his excellent biographer Prof. Jerzy Kirszak.
By inviting us to read, at the same time we want our readers a peaceful and reflective Christmas and all success in fresh 2026!
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