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Polish Navy Composition and Disposition?

Discussion in 'Atlantic Naval Conflict' started by clueless_newbie, Feb 19, 2009.

  1. clueless_newbie

    clueless_newbie Member

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    Can anybody tell me what was the composition of the Polish Navy in August 1939, and how it fared from then until the Polish national surrender?

    What happened to any surviving ships and crews after the surrender?

    Thanks.
     
  2. JCFalkenbergIII

    JCFalkenbergIII Expert

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    clueless_newbie likes this.
  3. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson "The" Rogue of Rogues

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    From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Navy#World_War_II

    The outbreak of World War II caught the Polish Navy in a state of expansion.
    Lacking numerical superiority, Polish Naval commanders decided to withdraw main surface ships to Great Britain to join the Allied war effort and prevent them from being destroyed in a closed Baltic (the Peking Plan).

    On August 30, 1939, 3 destroyers (ORP Błyskawica, ORP Grom, and ORP Burza) sailed to the British naval base at Leith in Scotland.
    They then operated in combination with Royal Navy vessels against Germany.

    Also two submarines managed to flee from Baltic through the Danish straits to Great Britain during the Polish September Campaign
    (one of them, ORP Orzeł, made a daring escape from internment in Tallinn, Estonia, and traveled without maps).
    Three submarines were interned in Sweden, while remaining surface vessels were sunk by German aircraft.

    During the war the Polish Navy in exile was supplemented with leased British ships, including two cruisers, seven destroyers, three submarines, and a number of smaller fast-attack vessels.
    The Polish Navy fought alongside the Allied navies in Norway, the North Sea, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and aided in the escort of Atlantic and Arctic convoys, in which ORP Orkan was lost in 1943.

    Polish naval vessels played a part in the sinking of the Bismarck, and in the landings in Normandy during D-Day.
    During the course of the war, one cruiser, four destroyers, one mine layer, one torpedo boat, two submarines and some smaller vessels
    (gunboats, mine hunters etc.) were sunk; in total, twenty-six ships were lost, mostly in September 1939.
    In addition to participating in the Bismarck sinking, the Polish Navy sank an enemy destroyer and six other surface ships, two submarines and a number of merchant vessels.

    Polish Naval Operations:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Navy#Operations
     
  4. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson "The" Rogue of Rogues

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    ORP Błyskawica
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_B%C5%82yskawica

    ORP Błyskawica is a Grom-class destroyer which served in the Polish Navy during World War II and is the only ship of the Polish Navy awarded the Virtuti Militari medal.
    It is preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia, the oldest preserved destroyer in the world.
    She was the second of two Grom-class destroyers, built for the Polish Navy by J. Samuel White, Cowes in 1935–37.
    The name means Lightning. The two Groms were some of the most heavily armed and fastest destroyers on the seas during World War II.

    ORP Grom
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_Grom_%281936%29

    ORP Grom was the lead ship of her class of destroyers serving in the Polish Navy during World War II.
    She was named after the Polish word for "thunderclap".

    ORP Burza was a Wicher-class destroyer of the Polish Navy which saw action in World War II.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_Burza
    __________________

    HMS Danae, during the latter part of World War II commissioned as ORP Conrad, was the lead ship of the Danae-class cruisers
    (also known as the D class), serving with the Royal Navy between the world wars and with the Polish Navy during World War II.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Danae_%28D44%29
     
  5. Fred Wilson

    Fred Wilson "The" Rogue of Rogues

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    Polish Navy Submarines.

    ORP Orzeł
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ORP_Orze%C5%82_%281938%29

    ORP Orzeł was the lead ship of her class of submarines serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. Her name means Eagle in Polish.

    The boat is best known for the Orzeł incident, her escape from internment in neutral Estonia during the early stages of the Second World War.

    After a refit, Orzeł was assigned to the Royal Navy's 2nd Submarine Flotilla, and was assigned to patrol missions.

    Shortly after noon on 8 April 1940 she sank the 5,261 ton clandestine German troop transport Rio de Janeiro off the small harbour village of Lillesand in southern Norway, killing hundreds of German troops intended for the invasion of Norway.
    Rio de Janeiro was heading to Bergen in order to take part in the initial landings of Operation Weserübung - the invasion of Norway and opening move of the Norwegian Campaign.
    Two days later Orzeł fired torpedo at a German minesweeper V 705; however, she was forced to dive before the sinking of the German ship could be confirmed-the ship was not damaged by the torpedoes.

    Orzeł departed on her seventh patrol on 23 May, to the central North Sea.

    On 1 and 2 June a radio message was transmitted from Rosyth ordering her to alter her patrol area and proceed to the Skagerrak.
    No radio signals had been received from her since she had sailed, and on 5 June she was ordered to return to base.
    She never acknowledged reception, and never returned to base.

    ORP Wilk - Wolf in Polish.
    http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5430.html

    From 1 to 14 September she patrolled by Penninsula Hel.
    At midnight 14 September the ship went by Sund Strait and 20 September arrived Rosyth (Great Britain).
    After repairs Wilk was detached to its usual patrol duty in North Sea.

    In the autumn of 1940 Wilk was docked for almost year and thereafter was used as training submarine. She was put in reserve on 2 May 1942.

    ORP Jastrzab
    http://uboat.net/allies/warships/ship/5433.html

    Jastrzab (Kapitan Marynarki Boleslaw Romanowski) was mistakenly sunk by the Norwegian destroyer St. Albans
    and the British minesweeper HMS Seagull in the Norwegian Sea in position 71º30'N, 12º32'E.

    5 men died and the Commanding officer survived though wounded.
     

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