Józef Unrug
Vice Admiral Józef Unrug (1884-1973) was a German-born Polish naval officer who helped to reestablish Poland's Navy after World War I. He served as commander of the Polish Navy during the opening stages of the World War II.
Biography
Józef Michał Hubert Unrug was born October 7, 1884 in Brandenburg, to a germanised family of Tadeusz Unrug, a Major General of the Prussian army. After graduating from a gymnasium in Dresden, Unrug finished the Navy School in 1907 and started his service in the German navy. During World War I he served as commanding officer of a U-Boot. Later he was promoted and assigned to command a submarine flotilla.
After Poland regained her independence, Unrug left Germany and volunteered for the Polish Army. Soon afterwards he was transferred to the newly-born Polish Navy, where he served as the chief of the Hydrographic Division and then as the commanding officer of a submarine flotilla. One of the most skilled officers in the Polish Navy, Unrug was quickly promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. Despite his problems with the Polish language, in 1925 he became the commander of the Polish Navy.
During the Polish Defence War of 1939, Unrug executed his plans of a strategic withdrawal of the major vessels of the Polish Navy to Great Britain. At the same time he commanded all the Polish submersibles to lay a naval mine fields in the Gdańsk Bay. After that the units were either interned in the neutral countries or escaped to Great Britain. Despite having lost control over the navy, Unrug remained the commander of the land forces defending Pomerania against German aggression. However, on October 1, 1939, that is after both Warsaw and Modlin capitulated, admiral Unrug decided that further defence of the isolated Hel Peninsula was pointless and the following day all units under his command capitulated.
Józef Unrug spent the rest of the World War II in various German POW camps, including Oflag II-C in Woldenberg, Oflag XVIII-C in Spittal, Stalag X-B in Sandbostel, Oflag IVc (Colditz Castle) and finally Oflag VII-A Murnau. In the latter camp he was the eldest-ranking officer and the commander of the Polish soldiers interned there.
After liberation in 1945, Unrug went to the United Kingdom, where he served in the Polish Army in the West and took part in its liquidation. After the Allies withdrew support for the Polish government, Unrug remained in exile in Great Britain, and then in France. He died February 28, 1973 in a Polish Veterans Hospital in Lailly-en-Val near Beaugency, at the age of 88. On March 5 of the same year he was buried in a chapel of Branicki family palace in Montresor. In 1976 a stone tablet commemorating Admiral Unrug was erected in Oksywie and his ashes were returned to Poland.
Awards and decorations
Among other medals, Józef Unrug was a recipient of the following:
| Virtuti Militari V class | |
| Order Odrodzenia Polski Commanders' Cross | |
| Golden Krzyż Zasługi (Cross of Merit) with Swords | |
| Iron Cross |