This is one of the most compromising cards of the defensive war of 1939. Already in the first days of September, the commander of the submarine ORP Orzeł announced that he needed medical care due to a sudden illness. Instead of fighting the Germans, he went to Estonia, Tallinn. In the meantime, Lieutenant Commander Henryk Kłoczkowski was breaking orders and ignoring orders. He avoided confrontation with the enemy, and - according to the crew - he simulated ...
ORP Orzeł, launched on January 15, 1938, was the pride of the Polish Navy. The 84-meter ship, capable of plunging 100 meters into the sea, was partially financed by a public fundraiser conducted by the Maritime and Colonial League, popular in the interwar period. On February 2, 1939, the ship was officially incorporated into the Navy.
Nobody protested when the command of the unit was entrusted to one of the most talented Polish submarines at the time - Lieutenant Commander Henryk Kłoczkowski. He had an excellent opinion, although was also followed by an embarrassing episode from his stay in the Netherlands . There he allegedly got into an affair with a prostitute.
Before the war, however, no one paid any attention to such trifles. Commander Eugeniusz Pławski, who commanded the Submarine Squadron in 1932-1936, recalled Kłoczkowski:
He was capable and literally in love with submarines, electricity torpedoes (…). I was never disappointed with this man who also had inventive and organizational skills.
So it seemed like the right man was in the right place.
Leaky "bag"
In September 1939, Poland had five submarines. As part of the "Bag" plan, each of them was to patrol a designated area. In the case of Orzel, it was the inner region of the Gulf of Gdańsk. It was supposed to protect the ports of Gdynia and Hel in the event of the approach of large Kriegsmarine ships. The waters in which the Orzel was to operate were shallow, but relatively safe, as they were within the range of coastal artillery from the Hel Peninsula and Oksywie.
In practice, it started “badly” at the very beginning. On September 1, 1939, the Eagle went to sea late . All because the commander released some of the crew to the houses in Oksywie. Eventually, the ship unberthing an hour after the others. However, it was not the fault of Kłoczkowski, but the naval command, which delayed issuing the order to go to sea until the last moment (as a result of the war, Polish submarines were found in ports). Fortunately, the Germans missed this chance, mainly due to bad weather conditions.
ORP Orzel was ordered to attack the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. He was supposed to sail to the port of Gdańsk and attack the enemy with torpedoes as soon as he went out to sea.
This, however, was only a foretaste of the catastrophe. It turned out that the The Sack plan was full of tactical holes . Polish submarines were positioned too close to the shore and in a small area. The Germans quickly located our units in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Gdańsk and targeted them. In practice, they were under constant enemy air and water attacks. They were unable to carry out their tasks and posed no threat to the enemy.
Incalable Eagle
ORP Orzeł from the very beginning showed the greatest communication problems of all. He waited out the first day of the war, hidden in the depths, for fear of German planes. Occasionally it emerged to periscope depths permitting observation.
On September 2 he was located by the Germans. Enemy planes dropped bombs on him. The unit was saving itself by immersion. In the early afternoon ORP Orzel was ordered to attack the battleship Schleswig-Holstein. He was supposed to sail to the port of Gdańsk and attack the enemy with torpedoes as soon as he went out to sea.
Lieutenant Commander Kłoczkowski, however, did not obey this order. In a conversation with his officers, he argued that the instructions were incomprehensible to him and that the waters of the Gulf of Gdańsk were too shallow (it should be noted in his defense that, contrary to the information obtained by the command, the battleship did not leave the port at all).
From that moment on, strange things began to happen with the Eagle commander. Apparently, not to blame, explained to his subordinates that further fight was pointless. He was to start acting irresponsibly . When Orzeł met ORP Wilk in the Gulf of Gdańsk, Kłoczkowski, instead of a short exchange with the commander of that unit, talked to him and prolonged the conversation, stressing the pointlessness of further resistance. According to the account of Lieutenant Commander Bronisław Krawczyk Kłoczkowski was touched by "hideous fear" .
Insubordinate Captain
On September 3, the ship waited all day in the depths near Jastarnia. Even though it was not attacked, it did not come out to periscope depth. The commander informed the crew that the Eagle (against orders) was changing the area of operation and headed for the Gotland region, because the waters of the Gulf of Gdańsk were too shallow, and there was no possibility of operation. Long story short:he made the decision to desert.
He did not inform his superiors about the change of sector. They thought that the Eagle was still in the Gdańsk Bay. Soon after, he was assigned a new area of operation (in the area of Piława, now Bałtijsk in the Kaliningrad District), but Kłoczkowski did not comply with the order. He had it written that the radio command was illegible.
The extravagant behavior of the commander offended the sailors. In public, in front of the crew, he challenged decisions and mocked his superiors.
In the meantime, the ship was thrown with depth charges by the Germans. Despite the high intensity of the attack (10 bombs were dropped on the Eagle), fortunately, no major losses took place. The attack, though without consequences, stiffened Kłoczkowski even more.
The extravagant behavior of the commander offended the sailors. In public, in front of the crew, he challenged decisions and mocked his superiors. He ostentatiously smoked cigarettes during the submersion of the ship, which spoiled the quality of the air inside. He also happened to hang out in the so-called the kiosk, which was extremely irresponsible - in case they had to plunge into an enemy attack.
Indisposition of the commander
To make matters worse, Kłoczkowski began to complain about stomach problems. The paramedic from Orzel was unable to determine what exactly was wrong with the commander. Kłoczkowski officially stopped eating and ate only biscuits and tea. Officially - as some of the officers noticed that the crew members were secretly bringing his meals to his cabin.
In any event, the health of the commander deteriorated enough that he staggered and mumbled and then stopped leaving the cabin . On September 10, the superiors were informed about the situation. Lieutenant Commander Aleksander Mohuczy, after consulting Rear Admiral Józef Unrug, decided to replace the commander. He ordered Orł to go to one of the neutral Swedish or Finnish ports or discreetly sail to Hel. No reply came.
The sick Kłoczkowski was considering the order for two days. Ultimately, he decided not to comply with it. Instead of Sweden or Hel, he ordered to sail to Estonia's Tallinn. He claimed that he had friends from courtesy visits there and that he could receive medical treatment there.
Estonian recovery
So it happened. The Polish ship reached Tallinn on September 14 in the evening. Soon after, Kłoczkowski was visited ashore and was hospitalized. According to the sailors, the second lieutenant commander suddenly recovered and grew vigorous, and took ashore two full suitcases, a typewriter and a shotgun . There was probably no clearer signal to the crew that they were not going to come back.
For the abandoned sailors, the fate of the commander ceased to matter when suddenly the attitude of Estonians changed dramatically. They decided that there were no grounds to host Poles in the port (the reported need to repair the compressor was not considered a sufficient excuse) and decided to intern the crew.
"Remember that it is not appropriate to return from the afterlife in a worse class than the first" - commented Cpt. Grudziński.
Soon after, the Poles - thanks to a daring escape - got out of Tallinn. The Eagle continued its route without Kłoczkowski.
On October 14, 1939, despite the lack of maps and weapons, they reached the shores of Scotland, earlier releasing two Estonian sailors who were overpowered during their escape. Estonians, reported by BBC radio as murdered by Poles, were blown up in Sweden. Each of them got a lunch, a bottle of vodka and $ 50 to return to Estonia. " Remember that it is not appropriate to return from the afterlife in a worse class than the first" - commented the commander of the Eagle, Cpt. Grudziński.
Without the Katyn grave
And Kłoczkowski? It is said that he recovered very quickly in a Tallinn hospital. He only stayed there for 3 days. At that time, the crew of the Eagle made a statement describing the course of events, accusing him of cowardice.
Kłoczkowski, deprived of his command, lived in Tallinn for some time. He frantically tried to get help in getting to England, wrote letters explaining the whole matter, but admiral Jerzy Świrski ignored this correspondence. In 1940, after the Soviet occupation of Estonia, Kłoczkowski was taken prisoner and, like other Polish officers, he was imprisoned in the Kozielsk camp. However, he did not end up like thousands of other officers - in a Katana grave with a hole in the back of his head.
How did this happen? Historians are trying to answer this question. How did Kłoczkowski survive in Soviet captivity? There are hypotheses that he could have displayed communist sympathies, or at least pretend. Some researchers go even further and believe that the commander of the Eagle may have been a Soviet spy, recruited many years earlier after a shameful affair with a prostitute in the Netherlands. Compromises could induce Kłoczkowski to cooperate. If we accept this version, the choice of a port in Estonia close to the border with the USSR does not seem to be accidental.
Get a quinine high
Was the commander a traitor? It is not known to this day, at least he did not face the Polish Maritime Court in London until 1942, when he arrived in the West with General Anders' army.
The verdict, based on the crew's account, was issued after the trial, which cannot be considered fair and impartial. Kłoczkowski and his lawyer were not admitted to the case files, but only to the indictment. Those who were still alive were not summoned either. Kłoczkowski tried to look for help and witnesses from his former colleagues, but he did not get it.
Some researchers go even further and believe that the Eagle commander may have been a Soviet spy, recruited many years earlier.
He admitted in court that was taking quinine for his symptoms of confusion. Was he sick because of this substance? which allows you to control the nerves, but at the same time deprives the appetite and leads to digestive problems, and overdose increases confusion and anxiety? Could be.
Finally, on August 3, 1942, for failure to fulfill the duty of soldier allegiance, he was demoted to the rank of a sailor and expelled from the ranks of the Polish Navy. He was also sentenced to four years in prison, but did not even serve the day of his sentence. Although the trial certainly violated the "rules of art", it was favorable to Kłoczkowski. He was convicted of minor offenses, if he were to "pull out" the more serious, he would have been killed. According to article 57 of the pre-war military code, "desertion from position in the face of the enemy or from a besieged fortress is punishable by death."
A traitor or a cynic?
The commander of the Eagle tried to fight for his good name until the end of his life. After the war, his case was re-examined, upholding the original sentence. The disgraced officer settled in the USA. He worked in a shipyard as a submarine specialist. He died in 1962.
Who was Lieutenant Commander Kłoczkowski:a traitor, a coward, a man with a weak psyche or a cynic who wanted to mock a real war? There will certainly be many more analyzes of this character's actions.
It is certain that at the time of the trial he did not act in accordance with the soldier's ethos and duty. Generally, however, the selection of Kłoczkowski as the commander of ORP Orzeł is part of a series of strategic and personal mistakes, misguided decisions and disastrous moves that marked the defensive war of 1939 and the defense of the Polish coast by underwater units.
It was one big disaster. The performance balance of the "Worek" and "Rurka" plans (creating a mine farm in the Gulf of Gdańsk) illustrates the scale of the disaster. Polish submarines, due to bad decisions in September 1939 in the Baltic Sea, were practically helpless . Quickly targeted by the Germans, they were easy targets.
Unlike the Eagle, the rest of them tried to fight and perform their tasks. Ultimately, however, due to the destruction caused by the enemy, each of the five ships left the Bay of Gdańsk, sought shelter on the high seas and reached foreign ports. ORP Ryś, Sęp and Żbik were interned by Sweden. ORP Wilk has reached England.