Thunder and Lightning at the Dockyard
Thunder and Lightning at the Dockyard
Polandโs Navy at Chatham during the Second World War and a visit to Gdynia.
by Paul Wright (Interpretation Officer, CHDT)โฏ
Operation Peking
โPEKING, PEKING, PEKINGโ
This was the code signal received by Polish warships on 29th of August 1939. Part of an agreement signed just days earlier between the British and the Poles, this signal ordered the most modern ships to break port and proceed to Britain with haste.
The controversial โPeking Planโ or โOperation Pekingโ specified that in the event of a Nazi invasion of Poland, elements of the Polish Navy should evacuate the Baltic (where they would have been vulnerable from sea and air attack) and carry by operating from bases in the United Kingdom.
The modern Destroyers ORP* BลYSKAWICA (Lightning), GROM (Thunder) and BURZA (Thunderstorm) arrived in Leith, Scotland on the 1st of September.
The same day, the ageing Nazi Battleship SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN fired the opening shots of World War Two at the Westerplatte outside Danzig (now Gdansk) and Panzer divisions roared across the border into Poland. Two days later, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlainโs ultimatum to Hitler to withdraw expired and Britain and France joined Poland at war.โฏ
Grom-Class Destroyer
Earlier, in 1934, British shipbuilder J Samuel White won a contract to build two Destroyers for what would become the Grom-class of the Polish Navy.
GROM and her sister BลYSKAWICA became two of the heaviest, best-armed, and fastest Destroyers in the world. When launched in 1935, the two Destroyers carried seven 4.7in guns and four 40mm anti-aircraft guns, with a top speed of 39 knots (thatโs faster than HMS CAVALIER, built nearly 10 years later).
The National Maritime Museum, UK have the J Samuel White shipyard model of GROM in their collection.
Within days of war breaking out in Europe, the remainder of Polandโs surface fleet was effectively destroyed. Poland also had several submarines. Three were interned in neutral Sweden, while two vessels, ORP WILK and ORP ORZEล, made it to Britain – the latter of the two had a particularly dramatic escape from neutral Estonia, when the crew had to break free from Nazi-pressured authorities in Tallinn.
Movements Logs
Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust is fortunate to hold some unique contemporaneous manuscripts in its archive collection.
The Assistant Queenโs Harbour Master (A.Q.H.M ) Movement Log for 1938-47 provides researchers with an invaluable record of all the ships and craft (civilian or naval) that entered the basins of Chatham Dockyard during the war years.
Within it we can find three Polish Destroyers early in the war, along with other vessels that were transferred from the Royal Navy to serve under a Polish flag with Polish crews; these included:
- ORP DRAGON (ex HMS DRAGON)
- ORP KRAKOWIAK (ex HMS SILVERTON)
- ORP PIORUN (ex HMS NERISSA)
- ORP ORKAN (ex HMS MYRMIDON)
- ORP GARLAND (HMS GARLAND)
- ORP SLAZAK (ex HMS BEDALE)
- ORPโฏKUJAWIAK (ex HMS OAKLEY)
- ORP CONRAD (ex HMSโฏDANAE)
These ships would serve as part of what became known as the โArmy in the Westโ, loyal to the Polish Government in exile in London. This was to distinguish it from other Polish forces fighting Nazi Germany alongside Soviet forces in the East or within occupied Poland itself.
In addition to having its own merchant navy, Polandโs naval forces would, in time, be bolstered by ships previously belonging to France and Belgium (at this time occupied by the Nazis).
Ships in Chatham
From the Movement Log we can find that BลYSKAWICA first arrives in Chatham on 10th November 1939, BURZA on the 23rd of that month and GROM not until the 10th of January 1940.
BลYSKAWICA came in and out several times, but was apparently at Chatham Dockyard for the last time (at least during the War Years) on February 8th 1940. Shortly after, all three ships were sent in support of the ill-fated Norwegian Campaign.
Tragically, GROM was attacked by a German bomber, causing catastrophic internal damage, leading her to sink in a matter of seconds and killing a third of her crew.
Later, the Battleship HMS RESOLUTION transferred the survivors from GROM to the BURZA. Swedish manufacturer Bofors made GROM and BลYSKAWICAโs main guns. GROM had been carrying much of the spare ammunition for both ships when she went down, which was partly the reason BลYSKAWICAโs guns were changed to British equivalents in 1941, so they could be more easily resupplied and maintained.
GROMโs sister ship BลYSKAWICA was involved in some of the most significant episodes of the Second World War. Withdrawing from Norway in 1940, BลYSKAWICA rushed to assist in the evacuation of the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) from Dunkirk. She was tasked with covering the evacuation route with her powerful anti-aircraft capability and high speed. On the 29th May 1940 she towed the stricken HMS GREYHOUND carrying 1000 stranded soldiers back to Dover.
Perhaps BลYSKAWICAโs most celebrated contribution to the war effort was on the night of 4th May 1942. While refitting at her place of construction in J S White shipyard on the Isle of Wight the Luftwaffe conducted a bombing raid of some 150+ aircraft. BลYSKAWICA fired her anti-aircraft weapons to the point where they had to be cooled by water from the Medina and replacement ammunition hurried over from Portsmouth. The intervention of BลYSKAWICA and her crew is widely accepted amongst historians as having spared the port and the town from more severe damage. The event is still remembered and commemorated in Cowes. BลYSKAWICA would go on to play her part in the D-day landings and the Battle of Ushant.
BลYSKAWICA survived the entire length of the war and remarkably is afloat to this day. Post-war the ship visited Chatham one last time in 1962. The ship remained in service until 1969, when she was modernised; her British gun barrels, torpedo launchers and radar systems were replaced with Soviet equivalents, but she remains afloat and remarkably well preserved. She was awarded the Virtuti Millatari (the highest military award, equivalent to the Victoria Cross) and as of 2006 was โtwinnedโ with fellow survivor and veteran of the Battle of Ushant, Canadian Destroyer HCMS HAIDA.โฏ
Visiting BลYSKAWICA
I have wanted to visit BลYSKAWICA for some time. As the Interpretation Officer in the Collections Team at The Historic Dockyard Chatham, Iโm particularly interested in telling stories that help audiences understand and engage with our unique collections.
The Muzeum Marynarki Wojennej w Gdyni ** are the custodians of ORP BลYSKAWICA. With a holiday planned for Poland, and having recently looked in more depth at the AQHM Movement Logs in our collection, I reached out to the team who help to preserve this special ship.โฏ
The museum can trace its roots back to the immediate post-war years, but the current incarnation was officially established in 1998, with its modern building built in 2012. The Museum (in their own words) โacquires, conserves, researches and exhibits the physical evidence of the history of the Polish Navy, for the purposes of study, education and enjoyment. One of our main aims is to be able to make the history of the Polish Navy more accessible to all.โ
Senior Assistant Oskar Myszor and Guide & Educator Tomasz Tarala were kind and generous enough to show me around the museumโs impressive permanent exhibitions and collections store, as well as other historic vessels kept onsite, such as the Submarine ORP SOKรL (1967) and the pre-Second World War Border Guard vessel ORP BATORY (1932).โฏ
Today ORP BลYSKAWICA is still used by the Polish Navy for training and ceremonies, with cooks using her original galley (located amidships) to prepare meals. The forward section of the ship (including the bow and bridge) is closed to the public and is used only by the Navy. The aft part of the ship, including the engine compartment, is open to the public, with one deck given over to a dedicated exhibition space.
Several highly significant objects are displayed here, such as an original bell and the Virtuti Millatari award.โฏ
Thank you again to The Muzeum Marynaki Wojennej
*ORP or Okrฤt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej (Warship of the Republic of Poland)โฏ
**Muzeum Marynarki Wojennej w Gdyni or The Naval Museum in Gdynia
