ORP Błyskawica is a Grom-class destroyer which served in the Polish Navy during World War II. She 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 or armored train is a railway train protected with heavy metal plating and which often includes railway wagons armed with artillery, machine guns, and autocannons. Some have also had ports used to fire small arms from the inside of the train, especially in earlier armoured trains. For the most part, they were used during the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, when they offered an innovative way to quickly move large amounts of firepower into a new location.
ORP Burza was a Wicher-class destroyer of the Polish Navy which saw action in 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.
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.
HMS Danae was the lead ship of the Danae-class cruisers, serving with the Royal Navy between the world wars and with the Polish Navy during the latter part of World War II as ORP Conrad.
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.
ORP Mazur was a torpedo boat, then gunnery training ship of the Polish Navy. She was the former German torpedo boat V-105. She took part in the Polish Defensive War and was sunk by German bombers on September 1, 1939, as the first combat ship lost in the 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.
Garford-Putilov armoured cars were an armoured fighting vehicle produced in Russia during the First World War era. They were built on the chassis of Garford Motor Truck Co. lorries imported from the United States.
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.
The Polish Navy is the naval branch of the Polish Armed Forces. The Polish Navy consists of 46 ships and about 12,000 commissioned and enlisted personnel. The traditional ship prefix in the Polish Navy is ORP.
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.
The Polish Naval Academy (PNA) "Heroes of Westerplatte" is a naval university supervised by the Ministry of National Defence of the Republic of Poland, with the history, uninterrupted by World War II, dating back to 1922. At present the PNA provides education for officer-cadets, commissioned officers and civilian students at first and second cycles of study, as well as doctoral studies. It also offers opportunities for professional development at specialized courses and postgraduate programs. In accordance with international agreements the PNA trains officers for naval forces of countries in Europe, North Africa, the Middle and Far East. International exchange significantly contributes to the rise in qualifications of the PNA staff. It also allows the students to attend lectures given by best specialists from leading scientific centers of the world.
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.
Tadeusz Józef Roman Morgenstern-Podjazd was a Polish naval officer who was one of the founders of the Navy of the Polish Second Republic and who served as the deputy commander of the Navy between September 1941 and October 1942.
ORP Smok was a full-sea tugboat of the Polish Navy, built in 1922 in La Rochelle, France. It sailed under various owners in France and Belgium under the names Le Boxeur and Leopold. Purchased by Poland in 1932, it served as a tugboat, training ship, and auxiliary mine-laying ship. It underwent numerous reconstructions. During the September Campaign, it transported materials from Gdynia to Hel. To block the entrance to the port in Hel, it was scuttled. It was salvaged by the Germans and, after repairs, incorporated into service under the name Rixhöft. It sailed until 1945, when it sank due to an aerial naval mine.
ORP Mewa is a Polish base minesweeper from the Cold War era, one of a series of 12 vessels of Projekt 206F, converted between 1998 and 1999 to a minehunter of Projekt 206FM. The unit measured 58.2 meters in length, 7.97 meters in width, and had a draft of 2.14 meters, with a full displacement of 470 tons. It was armed with three double sets of 25 mm 2M-3M autocannons and depth charges, and was also adapted for transporting and deploying naval mines.
