In 1919, after
Poland regained independence, Unrug left Germany and volunteered for the
Polish Armed Forces. Soon afterwards, he was transferred to the nascent
Polish Navy, where he served as chief of the
Hydrographic Division and then as commanding officer of a
submarine flotilla. Out of his pocket, the wealthy Unrug purchased the hydrographic ship which became ORP
Pomorzanin for the new navy. As such, no matter how much money was devoted to the
Marynarka, the
Kriegsmarine would always be the greater force, making the plans for a "green-water navy" capable of dominating the Baltic impractical. Despite the economical problems, in 1936 it was announced in Polish newspapers that the
Marynarka was committed to a "maximum plan" of buying two battleships that would cost 70,000,000 zlotys each, plus two heavy cruisers. By 1938, Polish newspapers were reporting that the "maximum plan" now envisioned a fleet of 3 battleships, 1 aircraft carrier, 2 heavy cruisers, 12 destroyers, 24 torpedo boats, 24 submarines, 16 minesweepers and 1 mine-layer. The "maximum plan", which went well beyond Poland's economic capacity at the time, was a "fantasy", and in practice the
Marynarka had to settle in 1938 for a construction plan of two destroyers, two submarines, four minesweepers and seven motor torpedo boats. Reflecting the economic problems caused by the Great Depression, the
Sanation regime planned to raise part of the necessary funds to pay for the scaled down "maximum plan" via public subscription. At the beginning of the Danzig crisis in May 1939, Unrug shifted the two naval rifle battalions assigned to defend
Gdynia to building field works in the Polish Corridor. In the summer of 1939, Unrug was appointed commander of the Coastal Region Defense and relocated from Gdynia to the strategic
Hel Peninsula. General Sir
Adrian Carton de Wiart, the chief of the British military mission to Poland, believed that the disparity in size between the
Kriegsmarine and the
Marynarka made it advisable for the latter to have as much of its fleet out of the Baltic before a possible war started and to be based in British ports. This was the origin of "
Operation Peking". Marshal
Edward Rydz-Śmigły was initially opposed to Carton de Wiart's suggestion but ultimately decided to accept it. Rydz-Śmigły believed if the Danzig crisis led to a war, it would be possible for France and Britain to supply arms to Poland via Romania and as such control of the Baltic was not necessary. Rydz-Śmigły ordered Unrug to make the necessary preparations to move the Polish fleet out of the Baltic. On 26 August 1939, the day after the signing of the Anglo-Polish alliance, Unrug issued the captains of all of the Polish destroyers, except the
Wicher which had engine problems, with sealed envelopes with orders not to open them until the message "Execute Peking" was received. On 29 August 1939, Unrug issued the order "execute Peking", which led the captains to open the envelopes containing the message to sail for Britain within three hours of opening the envelopes.
World War II During the 1939
invasion of Poland, Unrug executed his plan of strategically withdrawing the Polish Navy's major vessels to the
United Kingdom ("
Operation Peking"). At the same time, he got all Polish submersibles to lay
naval mines in the
Bay of Gdańsk ("
Plan Worek"). Following that operation, these vessels either escaped to the United Kingdom or sought refuge in neutral countries. Another plan Unrug had developed was Operation Rurka for the mine-layer
Gryf to lay a minefield off the Hel peninsula, but he decided to wait until the war started. On 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland and Unrug gave the orders for Rurka. The
Gryf was not ready until 12 hours after receiving the order and by the time she put to sea, she was spotted by German aircraft and was sunk. Unrug has been widely criticized for waiting until Germany invaded to launch Operation Rurka, but Szarski has defended him, saying that laying mines in the waters that ships had to cross to enter and leave the Free City of Danzig could have been presented by Germany as a
casus belli. The explosion had temporarily halted the German advance.
Oflag II-C in
Woldenberg,
Oflag XVIII-C in
Spittal,
Stalag X-B in
Sandbostel,
Oflag IV-C (
Colditz Castle), and finally
Oflag VII-A Murnau. In
Oflag VII-A Murnau, Unrug was the highest-ranking officer and commander of the Polish soldiers interned there as prisoners of war. The Germans treated Unrug with great respect, on account of him having previously been a German officer, by bringing former Imperial German Navy friends to visit him with the intention of making him switch sides. Unrug responded by refusing to speak
German, saying that he had forgotten that language in September 1939. To the irritation of the Germans, Unrug would always insist on having a translator present or communicating in French, when speaking with the Germans, even though he was a native German speaker. Unrug was greatly insulted by the attempt to have him switch sides, which made him identify with Poland even more. As a POW, Unrug had a relatively privileged life, being allowed his own bathroom and his batman, which were privileges not normally extended to POWs. At the Colditz castle, Unrug served as one of the co-leaders of the Polish POWs being held there together with General
Tadeusz Piskor. General Piskor was the most senior Polish officer held at Colditz, but Unrug was older than him and spoke fluent German, so in practice the two men shared the leadership. The Polish historian
Mieczysław B. Biskupski wrote that Admiral Unrug "...was perhaps not the greatest tactician of the interwar navy, but his conduct in German captivity was the stuff of legend".
Post-war exile After Poland was taken over by the
Soviet Union in 1945, Unrug went to the United Kingdom, where he served with the
Polish Navy in the West and took part in its demobilisation. After the Allies withdrew support from the
Polish government, Unrug remained in exile, in the United Kingdom, and then moved to
France. In exile, Unrug worked in a marina in Morocco tending to the care of cutters and in France he worked as a chauffeur. He died there on 28 February 1973 in the Polish Veterans' care home in
Lailly-en-Val near
Beaugency, at the age of 88. On 5 March 1973, he was buried in
Montrėsor cemetery. In 1976, a stone tablet commemorating Unrug was unveiled in
Oksywie. Unrug had specified in his will that he should not be buried on Polish soil until such time as all the remains of his fellow naval officers and men had been recovered from enemy control. ==Exhumation and state funeral==