The train was built in September 1939, at the initiative of Kapitan marynarki Jerzy Błeszyński, by employees of the workshop of the naval port in Gdynia. For the construction of the steel plates, steel from the hulls of unfinished destroyers Orkan and Huragan was used. The first commander of the train was Kapitan Błeszyński. After his injury on 9 September 1939 in Wejherowo, command of the train was taken over by Porucznik marynarki Florian Hubicki.
The operating personnel of the train was mostly formed by the Gdynian railways workers and sailors from the former company servicing the port.
Composition of the train: - 1 × tank locomotive OKl27 armoured with steel plates - 2 × armoured cars for troops - 2 × battle cars
Armor: 9mm high-tensile steel all-around the engine and cars' sides 6mm steel cars' roofs
The T-26 tank was a Soviet light tank used during many conflicts of the Interwar period and in World War II. It was a development of the British Vickers 6-Ton tank and was one of the most successful tank designs of the 1930s until its light armour became vulnerable to newer anti-tank guns. It was produced in greater numbers than any other tank of the period, with more than 11,000 units manufactured. During the 1930s, the USSR developed 53 variants of the T-26, including flame-throwing tanks, combat engineer vehicles, remotely controlled tanks, self-propelled guns, artillery tractors, and armoured carriers. Twenty-three of these were series-produced, others were experimental models.
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.
An armoured train is a railway train protected with armour. Armoured trains usually include railroad cars armed with artillery, machine guns and autocannons, some also had slits used to fire small arms like pistols and rifles from the inside of the train, this feature was especially prevalent in earlier versions of armoured trains. For the most part they were used during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower. Most countries discontinued their use – road vehicles became much more powerful and offered more flexibility, and train tracks proved too vulnerable to sabotage as well as to attacks from the air. However, the Russian Federation used improvised armoured trains in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009.
ORP Burza was a Wicher-class destroyer of the Polish Navy which saw action in 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.
The Marmon-Herrington Armoured Car was a series of armoured vehicles that were produced in South Africa and adopted by the British Army during the Second World War. RAF Armoured Car companies possessed them, but seem never to have used them in action, making greater use of Rolls Royce Armoured Cars and other types.
HMS Danae, during the latter part of World War II commissioned as ORP Conrad, was the lead ship of the Danae-class cruisers, serving with the Royal Navy between the world wars and with the Polish Navy during World War II.
Standard Car 4x2, or Car Armoured Light Standard, better known as the Beaverette, was a British armoured car produced during the Second World War.
The Panhard 178 or "Pan-Pan" was an advanced French reconnaissance 4x4 armoured car that was designed for the French Army Cavalry units before World War II. It had a crew of four and was equipped with an effective 25 mm main armament and a 7.5 mm coaxial machine gun.
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.
The Pantserwagen M39 or DAF Pantrado 3 was a Dutch 6×4 armoured car produced in the late thirties for the Royal Dutch Army.
The Peugeot armoured car was a four-wheeled armoured vehicle based on a commercial Peugeot truck that was quickly developed by the French in 1914 for use during the First World War.
Piłsudczyk was a Polish armoured train of the early 20th century. It was among the first armoured trains serving the Polish Army and took part in the Polish-Ukrainian War of 1918-1919, the subsequent Polish-Soviet War and the Silesian Uprisings. Kept in reserve during the inter-war years, it was mobilised again in 1939 to be used during the Nazi-Soviet Invasion of Poland. "Piłsudczyk" was destroyed by its crew on 20 September 1939 at the train station at Mrozy.
ORP Żuraw was a Jaskółka-class minesweeper of the Polish Navy at the outset of World War II. Her name is the Polish word for the common crane. Żuraw participated in the defense of Poland during the German invasion of 1939. The ship was surrendered to the Germans following the Polish capitulation and renamed Oxhöft as a naval trawler. Following the German surrender at the end of the war, the ship was returned to Poland under her old name. In 1947, Żuraw was modified for use as a hydrographical survey ship and renamed Kompas. She was broken up in 1981.
Armored trains of Poland mostly date to the World War I period. Many of them were modernized over the next two decades, and took part in most military conflicts of the Second Polish Republic, namely the Greater Poland Uprising, the Polish-Ukrainian War, the Polish-Bolshevik War, the Silesian Uprisings and the Polish September Campaign in World War II. Armored trains were also used by the Polish Armed Forces in the West as well as in the post-war period by the Polish Railroad Guards and the People's Army of Poland.
ORP Ślązak (241) is an offshore patrol vessel of the Polish Navy, formerly known as Gawron-class corvette. The ship is named Ślązak. It is a licence variant of the MEKO A-100 project developed by Blohm + Voss.
The Canon de 100 mm Modèle 1891 was a French naval gun developed in the late 1800s that armed a variety of warships before World War I and during World War II. In addition to its naval role it was also deployed as coastal artillery.
The armoured train Groźny also known as PP 54 and Armoured Train number 54 was an armoured train of the Polish Army that saw action during German Invasion of Poland in September 1939 and later in German service with portions of it seeing service on the Eastern Front and the occupation of France. It was originally captured about 1919–20 from the Soviet Union in the Polish-Soviet War.
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