"Great days of the small fleet" Polish Navy 1918 - 1945

Rhade

Post subject: "Great days of the small fleet" Polish Navy 1918 - 1945

Posted: November 3rd, 2010, 10:48 am

Posts: 2804
Joined: July 27th, 2010, 12:45 pm
Location: Poland

One topic to rule them all.

ORP General Haller was a Vodorez class gunboat originally built for the Imperial Russian Navy. Later acquired by the Polish Navy and served until sunk in the Polish Defensive War. On 1 September 1939, under the command of Stanisław Mieszkowski, General Haller was patrolling the port of Gdynia, where she was damaged in air attacks. On 2 September, the gunboat was sent to the naval port at Hel. There she was turned into a floating battery, until on 3 September, after major bomb damage, all the guns were stripped and added to the defences on land. She left floating until she was sunk on 6 September.

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ORP Gryf (English: Griffin) built from 1934 at French shipyard Chantiers et Ateliers A. Normand in Le Havre, she was launched in 1936. Built after a genuine French project to Polish specifications, she was intended as a large minelayer with an armament close to that of a destroyer. Powered by two Sulzer 8SD48 engines of 6,000 horsepower (4,500 kW) each, she was capable of 20 knots (37 km/h/23 mph), fast for its size. It also had quite a long range of roughly 9,500 nautical miles (17,600 km) at 14 knots (26 km/h). As the Polish Navy was small and no other state expressed a need for such a vessel, she remained the only ship of that class. Prior to the outbreak of World War II she also served as a school ship and could take on board up to 60 additional students and NCOs.

*With new reference material I acquired this is renewed and more accurate Gryf.

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ORP Wicher (English: Gale), the lead ship of her class, built at Chantiers Naval Francais, construction took 4 years, almost two more than initially planned. Commissioned July 8, 1930 a week later she arrived at Gdynia and became the first modern ship of the Polish naval forces. Her sister ship, the ORP Burza, was started at the same time, yet was finished two years later, roughly four years after the initial deadline. By late 1930s it was apparent that her armament was insufficient. The French artillery had a low rate of fire and the ship had inadequate protection against aerial bombardment. To solve the problem, in the autumn of 1935 two double 13.2 mm Hotchkiss heavy machine guns were added. At the outbreak of World War Two ORP Wicher and ORP Gryf were the only major ships left at Gdynia harbour for the protection of the Polish shore. In the morning of September 3, 1939, ORP Gryf and ORP Wicher, moored in a harbour, were attacked by two German destroyers, the Z1 Leberecht Maass and Z9 Wolfgang Zenker, firing at 9 nm. Polish warships and a shore battery im. Heliodora Laskowskiego ( 4x152 mm Bofors guns ) repulsed the attack, with Gryf scoring two hits. After that the German squadron put up a smoke barrier and withdrew. Later that day ORP Wicher, still in a harbour, repulsed two air raids. However, in the third attack at approximately 15:00 she was attacked by two group of planes, and the German Luftwaffe scored four hits. Two bombs hit amidships, one hit the bow and the other was a close miss, yet it managed to fracture the hull at several places on the starboard side. ORP Wicher started to sink and the crew made it ashore, where they joined the Land Defence of Pomerania. Altogether, she had one sailor killed and 22 wounded in the attack. After World War II, in 1946, she was raised and hauled outside the port to the area of Jastarnia. There she served as a target for aerial bombardment practice until 1955. In 1963 she was partially scrapped.

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Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!

Last edited by Rhade on November 13th, 2010, 8:48 am, edited 3 times in total.

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"Great days of the small fleet" Polish Navy 1918 - 1945

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