ORP Burza
Burza as a museum ship
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
The ORP Burza was a destroyer of the Polish Navy during World War II and thereafter until 1960. The Burza was built in France between 1927 and 1932 and belonged to the Wicher class . The warship was evacuated to Great Britain before the start of the war as part of Operation Beijing and took part in various Allied operations in the service of the Polish government in exile .
Prehistory and construction
The ship was built by the Chantiers Navals Français shipyard in Caen from 1927 as a result of a counter-deal. The Polish government needed a French loan , which it would only receive if it placed an armaments contract with the shipyard in return. Therefore, the original plans for the construction of nine submarines were shortened to the three boats of the Wilk class and two destroyers were ordered for them.
The steam turbines were built by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Saint-Nazaire , while the armament was provided by the French Naval Arsenal in Cherbourg . Although the destroyer already on 16 April 1929 by stacking ran, it took three years for the Polish Navy ship on 10 July 1932 the port of Cherbourg under the name Burza put into service. The name means "thunderstorm" and goes back to the French tradition of naming warships after weather phenomena. The construction costs for the two destroyers amounted to 22 million zlotys .
Mission history
1932 to September 1939
After six years of construction, the destroyer arrived in Gdynia on August 19, 1932 . After just a few days, Burza left the port again to visit Stockholm with the sister ship Wicher and U-boats between August 24 and 29, 1932 as part of a fleet visit. In the following years, the destroyer took part in several fleet visits. In 1934 Leningrad and Copenhagen were visited. In 1935 there were visits to Helsinki and Reval .
The Burza became the coronation parade for George VI in 1937 . sent to Spithead. In the same year, the tactical identifier "B" was removed as with the other Polish ships. In April 1939 the Burza escorted the submarine Sęp, which had been "hijacked" in the Netherlands, to Poland.
From September 1939
Due to the overwhelming superiority of the German Navy (→ balance of forces at the beginning of the war ), plans were made long before the war began on September 1, 1939, to evacuate the large Polish surface units to Great Britain. The Burza took part in this operation known as Operation Peking and ran out on August 29th together with the destroyers Błyskawica and Grom . On September 1, the three Polish ships in the North Sea met the British destroyers Wanderer and Wallace , who were escorting the Polish unit to Leith in Scotland . The following night the three Polish destroyers drove to Rosyth for the time being . The base of the ships was Harwich until April 1940 .
On November 21, 1939, the Polish unit ran out of patrol with the British destroyer Gipsy . The British destroyer ran into a German sea mine and sank. The Polish ships rescued the survivors and continued patrol.
1940
On March 22nd, the Burza escorted three French submarines and their supplier Jules Vernes from Brest to Harwich together with the Błyskawica .
On April 4, the three Polish destroyers were relocated to their new base in Rosyth, but left it immediately to sail off the Norwegian coast together with the British light cruisers Arethusa , Galatea and three destroyers . The aim of the operation was to take action against the impending German invasion of northern Europe .
On April 9, the German Operation Weser Exercise , the invasion of Norway and Denmark began . The three Polish destroyers were given the task of escorting the convoy HN 24, which consisted of 31 merchant ships , together with the British destroyer Tartar . The ships fled Norway, some were loaded with the Norwegian gold treasure . The convoy reached Great Britain without losses.
On April 12th, Burza , Grom and Błyskawica reached the base in Rosyth, were refueled and drove immediately to Scapa Flow , which they left on April 19th for Narvik . During the crossing, the Burza was damaged by a storm and forced to turn back.
From April 26, the Burza, together with the British destroyer Grafton , escorted a small convoy of two transporters and a tanker to an Allied base in the Skjelfjord in Norway. On April 30, the British tanker Boardale (8,400 GRT) hit a rock in the Asanfjord and was abandoned. The Burza rescued the tanker's crew. The next day the destroyer entered Harstad and took part in the air defense of this port. On May 5, the Burza took over the air defense of several merchant ships off Skaaland. A total of eleven German air raids followed. A reconnaissance mission was carried out in the Bjerkvik area on May 7th . On board the Burza were the commandant of the French 1st division légère de chasseurs General Marie Émile Antoine Béthouart and his staff. The city was slated for an Allied landing. On May 8th there were six heavy German air raids on Harstad. The Burza participated in the air defense. Two bombs exploded near the destroyer but did no damage. A little later, the Burza was able to save the crew of a shot down British aircraft. On May 10, Burza and Błyskawica left Norwegian waters for Scapa Flow.
Two weeks later, on May 24th, the Burza received an order to bombard German positions west of Calais together with the British destroyers Vimiera and Wessex . The attack began at 4:20 p.m. and was answered ten minutes later by an air raid with 27 aircraft. The planes were able to sink the Wessex , while the Vimiera managed to escape. The German aircraft were now able to concentrate their attacks on the remaining Polish destroyer and severely damage it. The 40mm anti-aircraft gun was hit and unusable, several bombs exploded near the fuselage, and the shock wave caused damage to the boilers, resulting in reduced travel speed. Commander Fracki dropped all torpedoes and depth charges to avoid secondary explosions, which was a right decision, as the ship was hit by two bombs shortly afterwards. The attackers ran out of ammunition and had to break off. The crew managed to seal the leaks and bring the Burza to Dover . A German plane was also shot down during the fighting.
On August 30, the destroyer ran out together with the Błyskawica to escort a convoy to the USA . The Burza soon had to turn back due to an accident.
On October 10, the British cruisers Newcastle and Emerald , the British destroyers Broke and Wanderer accompanied the British battleship Revenge together with the Burza and the Polish destroyer Garland during an artillery attack on Cherbourg.
On October 26, Burza took part in a rescue mission. The Canadian troop transport Empress of Britain of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company was badly damaged by a German FW-200 Condor long-range bomber off the Irish west coast in the morning . The destroyer could hold 254 men. The transporter was sunk with torpedoes on October 28 by the German submarine U 32 .
On November 16, the collided Burza in thick fog with the British anti-submarine - Trawler Arsenal . The destroyer suffered damage to the bow and the trawler sank.
1941
After extensive repairs and alterations, the destroyer escorted a convoy from Greenock to Hvalfjord in Iceland from July 30, which was reached on August 30.
On September 8, there was another accident when the Burza collided with the patrol boat Rosemary off Milford Haven . The ship then went to Glasgow on September 11 for a week-long repair .
1942
From February 3rd, the Burza in Glasgow was overhauled and modernized.
From December 3, the ship was a member of escort group B 6, which escorted convoy HX 217 . The escort group was commanded by Ralph Heathcote and its flagship was the British destroyer Fame . On December 7th, the convoy was attacked by German submarines. The Burza attacked a submarine with depth charges. The second was discovered over water, attacked with torpedoes and then depth charges. All attacks were likely unsuccessful. On December 9, a German submarine was discovered about 1,000 meters away. Burza tried to ram the submarine. The submarine was able to submerge. Ten depth charges were then thrown. On December 14th the convoy reached its destination in England. From December 20th, the escort group escorted a convoy to St. John's in Canada, which was achieved on December 31st.
1943
Between January 11 and January 27, convoy SC 116 was escorted from Canada to Greenock.
On February 21, the Burza was named under the command of Cdr. Paul Heineman assigned to standing escort group A 3. The task was to protect the convoy ON 166 to Canada. On February 22, the Polish destroyer sunk together with the Campbell from the US Coast Guard , the German submarine U 606 from Type VII C at position 47 ° 44 ' N , 33 ° 43' W . The submerged submarine was discovered in the night of Burza and attacked with 20 depth charges, damaged, forced to surface and then shot at with flak. The boat dived again and contact was lost for the time being. Shortly thereafter, the resurfaced submarine was sighted by Campbell , shot at with guns and rammed. Both U 606 and Campbell were badly damaged in the collision, which is why the commander of the US ship, James Hirshfield, asked for support, which was provided by the Polish destroyer. Burza was able to take in seven survivors of the submarine and accompanied the ailing US ship for some time. On February 22nd, the destroyer sank the severely damaged Norwegian whaler ON.T. Nielsen-Alonso . The running out of fuel supplies forced Burza to take the shortest route to Saint John's, which was reached on February 27 with only 2.5 tons of fuel left.
1944 to 1977
After the operations in the North Atlantic , Burza was transferred to the reserve in 1944 and used as a training ship .
In 1945 she served as a supplier for Polish submarines . In 1946 the destroyer was taken over by the Royal Navy .
In July 1951, Burza returned to Poland. The ship was thoroughly overhauled, modernized, equipped with Soviet weapons and returned to the Polish Navy in 1955.
On June 28, 1960, the Burza was decommissioned and exhibited as a museum ship in the presidential pool on the south pier in Gdynia . In 1977 the destroyer was scrapped. The Błyskawica took its place as a museum ship .
Commanders until 1946
| Period | commander |
|---|---|
| August 10, 1932 - September 14, 1933 | Komandor Bolesław Sokołowski |
| September 14, 1933 - December 31, 1935 | komandor podporucznik M. Majewski |
| December 31, 1935 - December 31, 1937 | komandor podporucznik Włodzimierz Kodrębski |
| December 31, 1937 - February 16, 1940 | komandor podporucznik Stanisław Nahorski |
| ? - November 30, 1940 | komandor podporucznik Antoni Doroszkowski |
| November 30, 1940 - January 22, 1941 | captain marynarki Jan Tchórznicki (temporarily) |
| January 27, 1941 - March 14, 1942 | komandor podporucznik Zbigniew Wojciechowski |
| August 6, 1942 - June 26, 1944 | captain marynarki Franciszek Pitułko |
| 1944 | porucznik marynarki Stanisław Kinka (temporarily) |
| 1944 | porucznik marynarki Przemysław Wesołowski (temporarily) |
| August 21, 1944 - November 15, 1944 | Komandor podporucznik Wacław Trzebiński |
| November 15, 1944 - June 1945 | captain marynarki K. Sawicz-Korsak |
See also
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-613-01426-2
Web links
- Burza on uboat.net ( engl. )
- Burza at polishnavy.pl (engl.)
- a picture of the two Wicher- class destroyers in the port of Gdynia
- Side elevation
Footnotes
- ^ "ORP" is the abbreviation for "Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means "Warship of the Republic of Poland".
- ↑ Historia Gdyni , section Dynia Wspolczesna , accessed on September 27, 2011.
- ↑ "komandor" corresponds to the corvette captain .
- ↑ a b www.polishnavy.pl ( Memento from July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) indicates 1933–1935 for Majewski and 1935–1937 for Kodrębski.
- ↑ "komandor podporucznik" corresponds to lieutenant commander .
- ↑ www.polishnavy.pl ( Memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) gives a command from komandor podporucznik Wojciech Francki for the period between February 16, 1940 and July 29, 1940.
- ↑ "kapitan marynarki" is comparable to first lieutenant at sea .
- ↑ a b c www.polishnavy.pl ( memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) gives Pitułko a command between August 6, 1942 and June 26, 1944.
- ↑ "porucznik marynarki" is comparable to first lieutenant at sea.
- ↑ a b www.polishnavy.pl ( memento of July 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) gives Trzebiński a command between August 21, 1944 and November 15, 1944 and mentions Sawicz-Korsak as a commander between November 15, 1944 and June 1945.
