ORP Mazur

	ORP Mazur (c. 1935–1939)
History
German Empire
Name	V-105
Builder	Stettiner Maschinenbau A.G. Vulcan; Stettin, Germany (Now Poland);
Laid down	1914
Launched	August 26, 1914
Commissioned	March 23, 1915
Fate	Assigned to Brazil, 1919; later sold to Poland
Poland
Name	ORP Mazur
Acquired	1920
Decommissioned	September 1, 1939
Fate	Sunk 1 September 1939
General characteristics
Class and type	V-105 class torpedo boat
Displacement	340 t, standard; 421 t, full;
Length	62.60 m (205 ft 5 in)
Beam	6.20 m (20 ft 4 in)
Draft	2.50 m (8 ft 2 in)
Propulsion	2 × Yarrow steam boilers; 2 × AEG Vulcan steam turbines; 5,500 hp (4,100 kW);
Speed	27 knots (50 km/h; 31 mph)
Range	1,400 nmi (2,600 km; 1,600 mi) @ 17 knots (31 km/h; 20 mph); 640 nautical miles (1,190 km; 740 mi) @ 20 knots (37 km/h; 23 mph);
Complement	80
Armament	Germany, 1915–1919:; 2 × 88 mm (3.5 in) guns; 2 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes; Poland, 1922–30:; 2 × 47 mm (1.9 in) guns; 2 × 450 mm (18 in) torpedo tubes; Poland, 1931–35:; 4 × Schneider 75 mm (3.0 in) guns; 2 × machine guns; Poland: 1935–39:; 3 × Schneider 75 mm (3.0 in) guns; 1 × Vickers 40 mm (1.6 in) AA gun; 2 × machine guns;

ORP Mazur was a torpedo boat, then gunnery training ship of the Polish Navy. She was the former German torpedo boat V-105.^[1] She took part in the Polish Defensive War and was sunk by German bombers on September 1, 1939, as the first combat ship lost in the war.

History

She was built in 1914 by Stettiner Maschinenbau A.G. Vulcan in Stettin, Germany (now in Poland). She was begun for a Dutch Navy order, as Z-1 (along with three sister ships Z-2 – Z-4), but after the outbreak of World War I she was confiscated by Germany and commissioned as torpedo boat V-105. During a division of the German ships after the war in December 1919, Poland was assigned only six torpedo boats, due to a reluctance of the British to strengthen newborn navies.^[2] V-105 was first assigned to Brazil, but then bought by a British dockyard and finally in 1921 exchanged with Poland for another torpedo boat (A-69), needed for spares, for extra charge £900 from the Poles.^[2] Poland also received her sister ship, V-108 as well (later the Polish ORP Kaszub), and four smaller torpedo boats. V-105 was in a bad condition and after some repairs in Rosyth, in September 1921 she was towed from Great Britain to Free City of Danzig, now Gdańsk.

Polish service

After a refit, she was commissioned in the Polish Navy on August 2, 1922, under the name ORP Mazur (named after the Mazurian people). She served in a torpedo boat unit (Dywizjon Torpedowców) and wore identification letters MR. In 1931 she was rebuilt as a gunnery training ship, and her armament changed to four 75 mm guns instead of torpedo tubes.^[3] The silhouette changed because of a lengthening of a bow deck and removing a well before a bridge.^[3] From 1935 she underwent a modernization, during which the ship lost a second funnel and after mast, returning to service in 1937. The fourth gun was replaced by 40 mm Vickers 2-pounder gun.^[3]

Demise

On the first day of World War II, September 1, 1939, ORP Mazur, commanded by Lieutenant Tadeusz Rutkowski, was in a port of Oksywie. At 2 pm she was at a pier, preparing to leave port, when she was attacked by German Junkers Ju 87s from IV./LG.1.^[4] The ship suffered one close hit and a hit amidships, and sunk still firing at the German aircraft. A crew member, although the ship was sinking, kept firing until waves washed him overboard, which was First Lieutenant Jacek Dehnel, the grandfather of the Polish poet and writer Jacek Dehnel.^[5]^[6] About 40 of the crew were killed. She was one of the first two ships sunk during the war, the other was an auxiliary ship (divers' tender) ORP Nurek. The wreck was scrapped by the Germans.

Gallery

Bow 75 mm guns after refit
ORP Mazur in 1927-1931
ORP Mazur in 1932-1934

References

^ Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1906–1921 Google Books page
^ ^a ^b Michał Kochan (in Polish): Przyznanie i remont torpedowców w Wielkiej Brytanii oraz ich rejs do Polski [Assignment and refit of torpedo boats in Great Britain and their trip to Poland], in: Okręty Wojenne Nr. 4/2001, p. 33-34
^ ^a ^b ^c Piwowoński (1989), pp. 261–262.
^ Jürgen Rohwer, Chronik des Seekrieges 1939–1945
^ Pertek, Jerzy: Mała flota wielka duchem, Poznań 1989, page 13–17.
^ Przeglad Morski naval magazine December 2008 Nr 12 magazine as pdf document

Bibliography

Dodson, Aidan (2019). "Beyond the Kaiser: The IGN's Destroyers and Torpedo Boats After 1918". In Jordan, John (ed.). Warship 2019. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing. pp. 129–144. ISBN 978-1-4728-3595-6.
Piwowoński, Jan (1989). Flota spod biało-czerwonej [The Fleet of the white-red ensign] (in Polish). Warsaw: Nasza Księgarnia. ISBN 83-10-08902-3.

v t e Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in September 1939
Shipwrecks	1 Sep: ORP Mazur, Tiger Hill 3 Sep: Athenia, ORP Gryf, ORP Mewa (1935), ORP Wicher 6 Sep: ORP General Haller 8 Sep: HNLMS Willem van Ewijck 10 Sep: SS Magdapur, HMS Oxley 12 Sep: Davara 14 Sep: Fanad Head, ORP Jaskółka, U-39 16 Sep: Rudyard Kipling 17 Sep: HMS Courageous 18 Sep: Warszawa 20 Sep: U-27 23 Sep: Martti Ragnar 24 Sep: Phryné, Caldew 29 Sep: HMS Caledonia 30 Sep: ORP Komendant Piłsudski 30 Sep: Clement
Other incidents	2 Sep: USS Pigeon 3 Sep: Hannah Böge 4 Sep: Christian Van Doornum 10 Sep: Triton 16 Sep: City of Paris 18 Sep: ORP Orzeł (incident) 22 Sep: Martti Ragnar Unknown date: HMS Vanquisher, HMS Walker Unknown date: SS Toruń
1938 1939 1940 August 1939 October 1939