In the early hours of 8^th July, whilst approaching a position inshore to give artillery support north of Caen, Dragon was struc, by a Marder ‘human’ torpedo, guided home by a German naval cadet. The torpedo exploded on the port side, between the funnels, and set off the magazine of Q gun. Wadjek was thrown 100 yards clear of the ship by the blast and spent some hours in the water before being rescued. According to Tadeusz Lesisz, an officer on board, exploding munitions ripped open the second engine room, destroying watertight bulkheads and oil tanks. Number 4 gun crew were drowning; engines and electrical power failed. Despite frenzied pumping the cruiser began to settle. She was dragged by a corvette and tugged to the British Arromanches artificial ‘Mulberry’ harbour B. Here she was allowed to settle as part of a line of sunken blockships scuttled parallel to the coast making up a ‘Gooseberry’ breakwater, which protected the small landing craft. Although most of the ship’s company of some 500 survived, one officer and 37 seamen were to eventually to die. Kocaba, severely shaken by his experience, was sent to Brighton to help nurse the badly injured.

From Poles Apart: Polish Naval Memories of World War Two by Martin Hazell