The Polish Navy 1918–45

From the Polish-Soviet War to World War II

Przemyslaw Budzbon, Paul Wright

• Publisher: Osprey Publishing
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781472847003
• eBook ISBN: 9781472847010
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

Packed with illustrations, this is a study of the Polish warships such as the Grom-class destroyers that were developed and built in the interwar years.

Newly independent Poland's naval force was created in 1920, initially with six ex-German torpedo boats. However, after German-Soviet exercises off the Polish coast in 1924, funding for warships was hastily allocated. Two destroyers and three submarines were built in France but, disappointed with their quality, Poland ordered new ships, mostly from British and Dutch shipyards.

By summer 1939, the Polish Navy comprised four destroyers, five submarines, one minelayer, six minesweepers and a handful of lesser ships. Although the Grom-class destroyers were two of the fastest and best-armed destroyers of the war, the tiny Polish fleet would stand little chance against the Kriegsmarine, and on 30 August three destroyers were dispatched to Britain, followed by two submarines that escaped internment. The remaining Polish surface fleet was sunk by 3 September.

In exile, the Polish Navy operated not only their own ships, but also Royal Navy warships, including a cruiser, destroyers, submarines and motor torpedo boats which fought alongside the Allies in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Arctic Convoys, and at the Normandy landings. This detailed account not only describes the Polish Navy's contribution to the Allied war effort but also the episode of the Polish destroyer Piorun which took on the Bismarck in a lone gun duel leading to the sinking of the great German battleship.

POLISH NAVY DEVELOPMENT 1921–39

The navy from World War I remnants, 1921

The first stage of the Paris Peace Conference after World War 1 was concluded by the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919, which tried to resolve the problem of Poland’s lack of access to the Baltic Sea by carving out the so called ‘Polish Corridor’ between the bulk of Germany to the west and East Prussia to the east. The only problem was that the 42nmi (78km) strip of Polish coastline lacked a harbour of any importance, except for the local fishing ports at Puck and Hela, while Danzig became a Free City under international jurisdiction.

The fishing port of Puck late in 1922, crowded with almost all of the Polish Navy. Berthed at the right side of the pier, looking from the left: first row: the surveying vessel Pomorzanin (ex-German Wotan) and the gunboat Generał Haller (ex-Russian Lun); second row: the minesweepers Mewa and Czapla; in the background: the gunboat Komendant Piłsudski (ex-Russian Vodorez). (Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe)

Poland’s claims for a share of the German and Austro-Hungarian fleets were ignored, however the Allies did agree that Poland could have six small, unarmed German torpedo boats on condition that they be used only for border-guard duties with limited armament. It was clear that the Polish Navy and any harbours would have to be built from scratch. The Poles requested help from the British naval mission, which arrived in Warsaw in September 1919.

The first Polish Navy seagoing ship was the survey vessel Pomorzanin, commissioned in May 1920. A former German passenger coaster, it had been purchased the previous year to guarantee Poland’s obligations to cover the area around the coast with a hydrographic service.

In May 1920 Rear-Admiral Kazimierz Porębski, a former Imperial Russian Navy officer who had been appointed head of the Polish Navy the previous year, issued a plan for a naval expansion programme. The plan was good but Poland’s poor economy meant that it was never realized in full. In reality, the Navy was limited to the acquisition of four German FM-type minesweepers bought via Denmark (German export restrictions forbade the selling of ships to Poland) and two gunboats bought from the Crichton shipyard in Abo in Finland. The gunboats had originally been ordered by the Imperial Russian Navy, but their construction had not been completed before the Bolshevik coup of November 1917. In January 1921, eight months later than planned, the four river monitors ordered for the Pińsk Flotilla were accepted. The ex-German torpedo boats finally arrived from Britain in September 1921.

...

Ślązak-class torpedo boats specifications (1922)
Displacement	325 tons (Kujawiak 330 tons)
Dimensions	length: 61.0m; beam: 6.40m; draught: 2.3m
Armament	2 Hotchkiss 47mm Model 1885 guns
	2 Maxim 7.92mm Model 1908 machine guns
	mine rails
Machinery	2 AEG Vulcan steam turbines driving two shafts; 2 Yarrow boilers

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• The Polish–Bolshevik War
• Polish Navy Development 1921–39
• The Polish Navy in World War II
• Conclusion
• Further Reading
• eCopyright