Page 325 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

CO.MBAT ACTIONS OF THE POUSH NAVY VESSELS IN THE MEDlTERRANEAN 311

were confirmed. The destroyer Krakowiak sent to the waters of Dodecannese as part
of British force (light cruiser Aurora plus 2 destroyers), from 28 October, patrolled
the Turkish coast and barraged the island of Kalimnos (l November). Next, in
tandem with HMS Petard, she projected troops from Cyprus to 2 islands i.e. Leros
and Samos (7-12 November and 16 November), and she also shelled 3 other islands
i.e. Levitha and Kalimnos (10 November), and Kos (17 November). However, the
Slazak was included into convoy escort groups on 25 October, and she carried the
troops of the Allies from Port-Said and Alexandria to Tarent and Augusta, to Mal-
ta, and to Tobruk and Algiers. The vessels were joined by the Krakowiak (30 No-
vember), and together, among other ships, in a convoy to Tobruk, they escorted
the Polish transport ship Kroman (10-12 December) and 8 other transport ships
carrying to Tarent a detachment of the Polish 3rd Division of Carpathian Fusiliers
(DSK) (19-21 December). At the end of the year 1943, the destroyers were enga-
ged in search for German U-Boots in the western part of the Mediterranean Sea
calling at Mers el-Kebir on l January. lt was also the destroyer Piorun which opera-
ted in that water region and which, on 14 November, passed to Great Britain pro-
viding the escort of the French battleship Richelieu thus ending her service in the
Mediterranean Sea.
In the campaign of 1943, the Polish Merchant Navy had further losses. Du-
ring the night of 2-3 December, in a raid of l 05 German bombers aver the port
of Bari filled with 40 merchantmen carrying the cargo for the U.S. 8th Army, two
Polish merchant vessels i.e. the Puck and the Lwow were sunk (3 seamen were kil-
led, 5 were wounded).
The 1944 winter patrols of the Dzik (from 23 December 1943) and the Sokol
(from 9 January 1944) were the last patrols conducted by the submarines based
at Beirut. The said patrols brought only a minor success. The Dzik is believed to
bave torpedoed an unknown ship near Tenedos; however, on another occasion,
after halting two small cutters, she did destroy them with explosives. In yet another
situation, on 9January, the Sokol destroyed a small schooner with her 76 mm artil-
lery near the island of Milos. The next patrols were suspended, which resulted from
the dissolution of the submarine base in Beirut. Consequently, the submarines we-
re sent to Malta where they arrived at the beginning of March. On the orders of
the Chief of the N a val Board (KMW), they were sent back to the United Kingdom,
and they reached Plymouth on 30 March (Sokol) and 8 Aprii (Dzik) ending their
courageous combat in the Mediterranean Sea. In recognition of their combat at
sea, the British Admiralty gave them the nickname of "terrible twins".
The vessels which remained in the Mediterranean Sea were the destroyers Kra-
kowiak and Slazak, and transporr ships of the Polish Merchant Navy. The destroyers
spent the winter of 1944 escorring convoys sailing from Tarent, Augusta, and Na-
ples to Alexandria, Algiers, and Mers el-Kebir, and those covering the distance bet-
ween Gibraltar and Port-Said. Among other tasks, berween 3 and 8 February and
17 and 21 February, they escorted the Polish transatlantic ships Batory and Sobieski,