World War Two Shipwreck "Accidentally" Discovered By Polish Divers

HMS Narwhal has been seen for the first time since she left her base during World War Two’s Battle of Britain.

Sent to lay mines off German-occupied Norway in late July 1940 she was sunk, seemingly never to be recovered.

But now, sitting upright on the seabed about 300ft down and around 150 miles east of Edinburgh, her wreckage has been discovered by Polish deep-sea explorers.

The team had set out to solve one of their nation's greatest maritime mysteries - that of the submarine ORP Orzel.

In 1939 the submarine ORP Orzeł escaped the German invasion of Poland and internment in Estonia and fled to the UK.

She conducted half a dozen patrols before disappearing on her seventh tour of duty in early June 1940.

The Poles have spent the past decade trying to locate the wreck of the Orzeł, Eagle in English, using hydrographic vessel Mewo Navigator to follow the route that the missing submarine had taken.

Over ten days, the ship scanned 900 square kilometres of seabed - five times the size of Tyneside - but found no trace of its intended target.

But all was not lost; the Navigator located no less than four shipwrecks; one of these was 88 metres long and seven wide.

The same dimensions, according to official British and German records, as the HMS Narwhal, which sunk 77 years ago.

Narwhal left her submarine base at Blyth on July 22nd bound for Kristiansund.

But the German Navy was already aware of the route she would take and dispatched the Luftwaffe to intercept.

German bombers attacked and sank the Narwhal, tragically taking skipper Lt Cdr Ronald Burch and 58 crew to a watery grave.

The Polish research team have vowed to continue the search for the Orzeł - and to track down relatives of the Narwhal's crew to provide them with more details of the submarine's loss.

Expedition leader Tomasz Stachura said:

"It was assumed that Narwhal was sunk in the vicinity of the Norwegian coast during its mission.

"Study archival documents and the technical specifications of the submarine operating at the time which could have been sunk in this stretch of water, it is highly likely to be HMS Narwhal."

Bomb damage to the boat's hull - between the conning tower and stern - matches the description in the German bomber crew's combat report.

Anyone connected with the wartime Narwhal should contact the 'Find the Orzeł' team at [email protected].