September 39' Polish Navy

[perdurabo]

WWII officialy started in 1st september 1939 with shoots from German crusier Shlesvig-Holshtein on Polish military base in Westerplatte. So this is the thread about ships of Polish Navy in this days.(and prabably if i get more info on German)
Poland at athis time had very small sea border


altough small Polish navy of this time was quite big, containing of:
4 destroyers
ORP Wicher (ORP = Oręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej = Republic of Poland Ship)



ORP Burza



ORP Błyskawica


(preserved in Gdynia as museum ship)


ORP Grom



Just before war 3 destroyers Błyskawica Burza and Grom escaped to UK.
Wicher was sunk by german bombers in Hel (polish naval base) in september campign
Grom was also sunk by germans but in Narvik in 1940
Burza and Błyskawica survived war Błyskawica is museum now but Burza was cut by commies.


1 bigh minelayer (as big as destroyer or very small cruisier)


also sunk by germans in september

and subs

2 big subs:

ORP Orzeł


(lost in first patrol after it reached UK)
ORP Sęp


sister ship to Orzeł it escaped to sweeden

3 smaller ones

ORP Wilk



ORP Ryś



ORP Żbik



Wilk escaped to UK Rys and Zbik to Sweeden

[Musashi]

Błyskawica (Lightning) and Grom (Thunderbolt) were large destroyers built in the United Kingdom. They were very fast (41 knots) and similar to light cruisers.
Wicher (Gale) and Burza (Storm) were French-made average destroyers.
Gryf (Griffin) was a minelayer converted from a merchant ship.

The ships Orzeł (Eagle) and Sęp (Volture) were Dutch-made big oceanic submarines.
Orzeł detected the German invasion on Norway and reported it as a first information about it, sinking the German transport ship "Rio de Janeiro" after broadcasting the command "abandon the ship" in the Morse's code.

[Johnny_H]

Looks like a tribal class destroyer ( the one that is now a museum )

[Zielony]

Burza was cut by commies.

I didn't know about it?! heh we learn something everyday...
thx great topic

[Musashi]

Looks like a tribal class destroyer ( the one that is now a museum )

No, Grom and Błyskawica were not related to any British destroyer. They were bigger and faster than Tribal class destroyers.
They were built in 1935-1937 in J. Samuel White & Co. Ltd. Shipyard in Cowes (the UK).
Displacement: 2400 tonnes
7 120 mm guns wz. 34/36 Bofors (3 x II i 1 x I)
2 x II (twin) 40 mm wz. 36 Bofors AA guns
4 x II (twin) 13,2 mm wz. 30 Hotchkiss AA machine guns
6 533 mm torpedo launchers (2 x III)
2 depth charges (20 bombs wz. BH 200) and 44 mines
Crew: 192 sailors
Max speed: 42 knots (other source 39.5 knots)

The Polish Navy had a N class destroyer in its service. It was ORP Piorun (ex-HMS Nerissa). She belonged to the Tribal class squadron (commanded by commodore Vian; other destroyers were... hmm Tartar, Zulu, Maori, Haida, sorry I don't remember them all) and was famous during the war, because she detected Bismark after she lost the contact with Norfolk and Suffolk. She traced Bismarck's moves to the end and had an artillery engagement with her(in spite of her shells could not do any damages to Bismarck).