ORP Sokół (1940)

Sokół as seen in Malta, possibly in 1943
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Urchin
Builder:	Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness
Laid down:	9 December 1939
Launched:	30 September 1940
Identification:	Pennant number: N97
Fate:	Transferred to Poland in January 1941
Badge:
Poland
Name:	ORP Sokół
Commissioned:	19 January 1941
Decommissioned:	Returned to Royal Navy 27 July 1945
Identification:	Pennant number: N97
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Urchin
Acquired:	Transferred from Poland on 27 July 1945
Recommissioned:	3 August 1946
Decommissioned:	December 1948
Identification:	Pennant number: N97
Fate:	Scrapped September 1949
General characteristics
Class and type:	U-class submarine
Displacement:	Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons
Length:	58.22 m (191.0 ft)
Beam:	4.9 m (16 ft)
Draught:	4.62 m (15.2 ft)
Installed power:	Diesel: 615 hp (459 kW) Electric: 825 hp (615 kW)
Propulsion:	2 shaft diesel-electric 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors
Speed:	11.25 knots (20.8 km/h) max surfaced 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged
Complement:	27-31
Armament:	4 × bow internal 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes with 8 to 10 torpedoes 1 × 3-inch (76 mm) gun

ORP Sokół (Polish: Falcon) was a U-class submarine (formerly HMS Urchin) built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. Shortly after launching in September 1940 she was to be commissioned by the Royal Navy as HMS Urchin, but instead was leased to the Polish Navy due to a lack of experienced submarine crews. A sister boat to Dzik, both boats operated in the Mediterranean from Malta, where they became known as the "Terrible Twins".

Shortly after her trials, the boat was handed to her Polish crew, in accordance with the Polish-British Military Alliance and amendments of 18 November 1939 and 3 December 1940. On 19 January 1941 the Polish banner was raised and the boat, commanded by Commander Borys Karnicki, was moved to Portsmouth. There she spent half a year patrolling the Bay of Biscay off the French port of Brest. In September she was moved to Malta, where she was attached to the 10th Submarine Flotilla. She took part in the naval runs on the Italian ports of Taranto and Naples. She also escorted numerous convoys in the Mediterranean. On 28 October of that year, Sokół achieved her first victory by heavily damaging the Italian auxiliary cruiser Città di Palermo. On 2 November in the Gulf of Naples she sank the 2,469-ton transport ship Balilla, with her sister HMS Utmost. On 19 November of the same year, she forced the anti-submarine nets and entered the port of Navarino, where she damaged the Italian destroyer Aviere. She was attacked by Italian torpedo boats and destroyers, but all of the depth charges missed and Sokół managed to escape from the harbour, sinking an additional transport steamer (5,600 tons) with three torpedoes. On 12 February 1942 she boarded and then sank the Italian wooden merchant schooner Giuseppina (362 tons) in the Gulf of Gabes.