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This stamp was issued by the Polish Government in Great Britain in December 1941. At the outbreak of the war the Orzel was a brand new vessel, somewhat larger than Poland's four other submarines. While patrolling the Baltic early in September 1939, she was damaged by depth charges and took refuge in Talinn Harbour, Estonia. She was interned by the Estonians, who took away her charts, navigating instruments and ship's documents, and began to disarm the vessel.
Polish naval men decided to make a dash for freedom, and on Sunday, September 17, 1939, they cut the mooring cables and slipped out to sea without navigational aids of any kind. They made their own chart of the Baltic and trusted to their skill and luck to reach England. Despite the fact that the whole of the German Baltic Fleet was searching for her, the Orzel escaped discovery and capture by spending days on the bottom of the Baltic, surfacing only at night.
On several occasions depth charges shook her, and after 36 days her water supply ran short. Washing and shaving were forbidden, but on Saturday, October 14, at 11 a.m. she sighted
H.M.S. Valorous in the North Sea. Her remarkable voyage of 42 days is one of the great voyages of his history. The Orzel was built in Vlissieugen Dockyard, Holland, in 1939, from money raised by private and public subscriptions, and given the name Orzel (Eagle), the Polish emblem. This famous submarine was presumed lost in the Heligoland Bight on June 8, 1940.
Poland SG485, 2011 Sea Breezes 11/52

Built as a submarine under yard No 205 by De Schelde, Vlissingen (Flushing), Netherlands for the Polish Navy.
29 January 1936 the contract was signed.
17 or 14 August 1936 laid down.
15 January 1938 launched under the name ORZEL (85A). Named after Poland’s national emblem.
Displacement 1.100/1.473 ton surfaced/submerged, 1.650 ton full load. Dim. 84 x 6.7 x 4.17m.
Powered by two Sulzer 6Qd42 6-cyl. diesel engines, 4.740 bhp, speed surf./subm. 20/9 knots, twin propellers. Two Brown-Boveri electro motors, 1.100 shp.
Fuel 67.5 ton normal, 123.5 ton maximum.
Range submerged 100 mile at 5 knots.
Armament 1 – 105mm Bofors and 1 – 40mm AA Bofors gun. Torpedo tubes, 4 – 21.7inch bow, 4 – 21.7 inch stern and 4 – 21.7 inch amidships.
Crew 6 officers, 54 men.
26 January 1939 completed.
02 February 1939 commissioned in the Polish Navy.

The design was from the Nederlandse Verenigde Scheepsbouw Bureau at s’Gravenhage in cooperation with a team of experts of the Polish Navy. The design was similar to that of the Dutch Navy’s submarine O 19 class.
The construction of the ORZEL was financed by voluntary subscriptions among the Polish army and navy personnel, who paid 2.644.566 zlotys and the other part of 5.723.699 zlotys was paid by the local population of Poland. Armament was paid for by the Polish Navy.
She sailed early February 1939 from Vlissingen, and arrived at Gdynia on 10 February 1939, where she was welcomed by a crowd of many thousands.
When war broke out between Germany and Poland the ORZEL was at sea, later she made due to the captain illness and damage a call at the neutral port Tallinn, Estonia, there against all international laws the Estonians interned her.
Charts, navigation equipment and most of her armament were confiscated, and she was moored alongside to an Estonian gunboat in an interior dock.
She made an escape under Lieutenant-Commander Jan Grudzinski in the morning of 18 September 1939 at 03.00 a.m she escaped from Tallinn.

For a month she harassed German shipping in the Baltic, without any sea chart. After news was received at Germany of her escape air and surface German warships hunted her.
She landed two Estonian guards who were on board when she escaped from Tallinn at the Swedish island Gotland
Due to a shortness of food and water the decision was made to escape to the United Kingdom. Through the narrow Danish Sound.
She passed the Sound, without sea charts and in spite of minefields and enemy patrols. After passing the Sound she lay low for a while in the Kattegat and Skagerrak, before she crossed the North Sea and safely arrived at Rosyth on 14 October 1939.

After arrival she moved to the Caledon Shipyard at Dundee for a refit, there Polish Prime minister General Wladyslaw Sikorski and the commander-in-chief of the Polish Navy Admiral J. Swirski visited her.

Her two guns were useless, the breech-blocs having been taken away by the Estonians, and the British torpedoes did not fit, she was used for convoy escort in British coastal waters.
End December 1939 in convoy duty to Bergen, Norway, and from the middle of January 1940 used for independent patrolling in the North Sea off the coast of Norway.
Her two subsequent patrols in the southern part of the North Sea were without success, as no enemy vessels were sighted.

Her fourth patrol was off Stavanger, Norway where she sighted and met a Danish freighter.
03 April 1940 she sailed from Rosyth for her fifth patrol to southern Norway. On 08 April she met the German troopship RIO DE JANEIRO (5.261 grt) of Hamburg Süd, transporting as was later discovered – invasion troops to Norway.
The ORZEL did give the sign to stop and send an officer with the ships papers to the sub.
The RIO DE JANEIRO failed to do so, and immediately the ORZEL fired a torpedo, which hit the target.
The German vessel sank in position 58 08N 08 29E with the loss of 26 crew and circa 125 troops. Norwegian fishing vessels rescued around 150 men, prematurely revealing thereby the German invasion plans.
10 April she attacked the German auxiliary minesweeper V 706 but missed.
The next day she sighted a large enemy transport vessel the ITAURI (6.838 gross) of the Hamburg Amerika Line, but her attempt to attack was thwarted by her escort and the ORZEL was forced to withdraw.
18 April she arrived back at base in Rosyth.
On her sixth patrol she sailed on 25 April, and returned on 11 May without any attack carried out.

Her seventh and last patrol, she sailed on 23 May from Rosyth for the central region of the North Sea, where she did not see any enemy activity, and on 1 and 2 June an order by wireless was sent from Rosyth to the ORZEL to change her patrol area to the Skagerrak. Not any signal was received from the ORZEL, and on the 5th of June the order was sent for her return, which she failed to acknowledge.

Till today the wreck is not found, and when or where she was lost is still a mystery. 08 June 1940 has been official accepted as the day she was lost.

Source: http://www.dutchsubmarines.com/export/export_orzel.htm http://www.polishnavy.pl/ships/submarin ... ional.html

Having read about the struggle to reach England-it just struck me as very sad-if the vessel was sunk just a few months later with presumably the same crew

Poland 1944 1z20 on 1z50 sg497