Page 320 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996
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306 J6ZEF W. DYSKANT
because of undeclared war and faulty fire-contro! system (repaired a few weeks la-
ter). She performed only patrol service in the eastern part of the Mediterranean
Sea (July- August) and accompanied the Warszawa a Polish ship carrying Polish
refugees to the Polish Brigade of Carpathian Fusiliers in the process of formation
in the Palestine. On 30 August, as a result of the efforts made by the N a val Board,
she was sent back to Great Britain. As part of a convoy to Malta, she reached La
V aletta in order to set out for Gibraltar (with 4 British destroyers) on 3 September.
The following day, she had a damage of her mains steam boilers, which occurred
during an Italian air-raid. However, she managed to reach Gibraltar; and, after
the repai"r, she arrived in Plymouth where she was included into the Polish destroyer
force. But the \Varszawa (which after the surrender of France passed from Beirut
to Haifa) for S months (from 11 August) sailed between Mersin (Turkey) and Hai-
fa carrying Polish soldiers from the camps of internment in Romania and in Hun-
gary. After the evacuation, she was under the orders of the British Command in
the Middle East and she transported Australian troops from Port-Said to Tobruk,
and she carried supplies for the British troops in Crete, Cyprus, and Peloponnese
in order to evacuate the British frÒm the ports of Greece after the German aggres-
sion in the Balkans. In the second half of the year 1941, she sailed between Alexan-
dria and Tobruk providing the fortress besieged by the Africa-Korps with food,
ammunition, and military equipment till26 December 1941 when she was torpe-
doed by the U-559 in the area of Marsa Matruh. The transport of Polish refugees
from the North African Territories belonging to the Vichy-ruled France was also
the task of the three special-purpose craft (formerly fishing vessels) of the Polish
Maritime Mission in Gibraltar. In September 1941, the task was begun by the Dog-
fish, which carried, from the area of Casablanca, the crew of the Polish ship Oksywie
thither interned. Next, the craft sailed to Casablanca four times, and then she ini-
tiated sailings to the area of Oran, which took piace at the beginning of the year
1942. In Aprii, the task was taken over by the Seawo/f(the vessellarger in dimen-
sions); and, at the same time, the range of actions increased because she also had
to transfer agents of the British SOE to the Nazi-occupied part of Europe. InJune
1942, the third of the craft i.e. the Seadog joined the Seawo/fto carry out the above
tasks.
In September 1941, the l>olish Navy vessels again returned to the Mediterra-
nean Sea. lt was the destroyers Garland, and Piorun, and the submarine Sokol. Both
destroyers took part in a convoy to Malta (Operation Halberd, 24-27 November),
and then, they escorted to Gibraltar, HMS Nelson - the battleship damaged by the
Italian Air Force (28-30 November). lt was also the submarine Soko/, which rea-
ched Malta after having patrolled the waters north of Sicily. In La V aletta, she was
included into the l Oth Submarine Flotilla, Mediterranean Fleet within which she
began combat actions against Italian shipping.
According to the agreement of the representatives of the Allied Countries o n
''Further joint combat actions against German and ltalian aggression" signed in
