ORP Błyskawica (Lightning) is a Grom-class destroyer which served in the Polish Navy during World War II. It is the only Polish Navy ship to have been decorated with the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military order for gallantry, and in 2012 was given the Pro Memoria Medal. Błyskawica is preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia and is the oldest preserved destroyer in the world. Błyskawica is moored next to the Dar Pomorza.
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.
The Grom-class destroyers were two destroyers, built for the Polish Navy by the British company of J. Samuel White, Cowes. They were laid down in 1935 and commissioned in 1937. The two Groms were some of the fastest and most heavily armed destroyers of World War II.
ORP Gryf was a large Polish Navy minelayer, sunk during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. She was one of two large Polish ships that were not evacuated to Great Britain during Operation Peking prior to the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War. She was sunk in Hel harbour on 3 September 1939 during the opening stage of World War II.
The Battle of Danzig Bay took place on 1 September 1939, at the beginning of the invasion of Poland, when Polish Navy warships were attacked by German Luftwaffe aircraft in Gdańsk Bay. It was the first naval-air battle of World War II.
ORP Gryf was a school and hospital ship of the Polish Navy, a second vessel to bear that name. She was built in German-occupied Denmark as a cargo ship in 1944, shortly before the end of World War II and initially named Irene Oldendorff. Soon after the capitulation of Germany, she was taken by the United Kingdom, passed to the Ministry of War Transport (MoWT) and renamed Empire Contees, but in 1946 it was given to the Soviet Union as part of that country's war reparations from Germany. Renamed Omsk (Омск), she served in the Soviet merchant fleet until 1947 when she was sold to Poland.
ORP Gryf is a Polish schoolship of the Polish Navy, the third vessel to bear that name. She is named after the notable Polish WWII minelayer. Built in Northern Shipyard in Gdańsk as a sister ship of ORP Wodnik, in 1976 she replaced the previous ORP Gryf in her role of a school ship.
ORP Wicher, the lead ship of the Wicher class, was a Polish Navy destroyer. She saw combat in the Invasion of Poland, which began World War II in Europe. She was the flagship of the Polish Navy. She was sunk by German bombers on 3 September 1939.
ORP Kujawiak was a British Type II Hunt-class destroyer escort, originally ordered as HMS Oakley.
This article details the order of battle of the Polish Navy prior to the outbreak of World War II and the Polish Defensive War of 1939. Following World War I, Poland's shoreline was relatively short and included no major seaports. In the 1920s and 1930s, such ports were built in Gdynia and Hel, and the Polish Navy underwent a modernisation program under the leadership of Counter-Admiral Józef Unrug and Vice-Admiral Jerzy Świrski. Ships were acquired from France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and the navy was to be able to secure the Polish supply lines in case of a war against the Soviet Union. By September 1939 the Polish Navy consisted of 5 submarines, 4 destroyers, and various support vessels and mine-warfare ships.
The Peking Plan was an operation in which three destroyers of the Polish Navy, the Burza ("Storm"), Błyskawica ("Lightning"), and Grom ("Thunder"), were evacuated to the United Kingdom in late August and early September 1939. They were ordered to travel to British ports and assist the British Royal Navy in the event of a war with Nazi Germany. The plan was successful and allowed the ships to avoid certain destruction or capture in the German invasion.
Three ships of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Warszawa, after the capital city of Warsaw:
The Battle of Hel was a World War II engagement fought from 1 September to 2 October 1939 on the Hel Peninsula, of the Baltic Sea coast, between invading German forces and defending Polish units during the German invasion of Poland. The defense of the Hel Peninsula took place around the Hel Fortified Area, a system of Polish fortifications that had been constructed in the 1930s near the interwar border with the German Third Reich.
Viktor Lomidze, also known by his Polish name of Wiktor Łomidze-Wachtang, was a Georgian-Polish military officer. After the Bolshevik take-over of his country in early 1920s he emigrated to Poland, where he joined the Polish Army and then the Polish Navy.
Three ships of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Orkan :
ORP Kaszub may refer to one of several ships of the Polish Navy:
ORP Rybitwa was a Jaskółka-class minesweeper of the Polish Navy at the outset of World War II. Rybitwa participated in the defence of Poland during the Nazi German invasion of 1939. The ship was damaged by a German bomb on 14 September 1939. The ship was later captured by the Germans, but returned to serve under the Polish flag after the War.
The Polish Navy is a military branch of the Polish Armed Forces responsible for naval operations. The Polish Navy consists of 48 ships and about 12,000 commissioned and enlisted personnel. The traditional ship prefix in the Polish Navy is ORP.
One ship and three submarines of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Sokół :
Three ships of the Polish Navy have been named ORP Grom :
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