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Eugeniusz PLAWSKI

Commodore of thePolish Navy during WW2

Commodore Eugeniusz Józef Stanisław Pławski, Polish war hero and Chief of Staff of the Polish Navy during the later years of the Second World War. These memoirs were published in Polish in 2003 as “Fala za Falą . . .“ (“Wave after Wave . . .”), a 450-page illustrated, hard-cover book.

He started his service career in the Imperial Russian Navy but stoutly maintained his loyalty to his Polish heritage throughout his life. He rose to the command of the Russian destroyer Zorkiy before returning to the newly-reconstituted Poland on the close of the First World War. 

When General Józef Haller staged his famous “Wedding to the Sea” at Puck in 1920, it was Pławski who gave the order to raise the flag of an independent Poland. He went on to command the Polish Naval base at Puck, the Polish minesweepers ORP Czajka and ORP Mewa and the gunboat ORP General Haller.

 

From 1928 to 1931 he led the Polish submarine navigation course in France. In 1931 he became commander of the submarine ORP Żbik and then became commander of the entire submarine flotilla. In 1936 he was transferred to the Polish Navy Command. In 1939 he was sent on a mission to France seeking military assistance in case of Germany’s invasion of Poland. 

After the outbreak of war and the fall of France, Pławski was sent to England where he assumed command of the OF Ouragan, an old French destroyer that had seized by the Royal Navy while undergoing repairs in Brest and towed to London before being loaned to the Polish Navy.

 

In October 1940, Pławski chose to place himself under the command of an officer his junior in order to take command of ORP Piorun, a brand-new Hunt Class destroyer which had been launched at Clydebank as HMS Nerissa before being handed to the Polish Navy. From late 1941 to 1943, Pławski was appointed by the Polish Government-in-Exile, then based in London, as a military attaché to Sweden. In May 1943, restless to get back to sea, he took command of the cruiser ORP Dragon. In 1944 he was promoted to Chief-of-Staff of the Polish Navy. 

After the war and the command of ORP Baltyk, a Polish Resettlement Corps camp in Okehampton, Devon, Eugeniusz Pławski and his surviving family emigrated to Canada where, among other activities, he was recruited by the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) as an interpreter and analyst. He died in Vancouver in 1973. 

Source: Excerpted from a translation of his memoir published in Polish in 2003

as “Fala za Falą . . .“ (“Wave after Wave . . .”) a part of the memorial project:

https://www.polishcombatantsmemorial.org.uk/project-plawski/

Some Polish Navy photos

Captain Eugeniusz Plawski Commander of the destroyer OR Piorun

Polish Destroyer ORP Burza

Polish Destroyer ORP Grom

Aboard Polish Destroyer ORP Grom

Aboard Polish Destroyer ORP Orkan

Aboard a Polish Destroyer

A Polish Destroyer

A Polish Destroyer

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