ORP Gryf (1938)
 |
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||
The ORP Gryf was a heavy mine-layer in the Polish Navy during World War II . The warship was sunk by German dive bombers in the port of Hela shortly after the start of the war on September 3, 1939 .
Construction and design features
In the spring of 1934 the Polish government gave the French shipyard Chantiers et Ateliers Augustin Normand in Le Havre the construction contract for a heavy mine-layer. The ship was developed by Polish standards of a French project and ran on 29 November 1936 by the stack .
The unit was very large for a miner, and the artillery armament was equivalent to that of a destroyer .
The Gryf entered service on February 27, 1938, was the only ship of its class and the largest ship in the Polish Navy at the time. Due to its size, it was able to accommodate up to 60 additional crew members and was therefore used as a training ship in the meantime.
history
At the beginning of the Second World War , the balance of power between the Polish Navy and the German Navy was extremely unfavorable from a Polish perspective. (see: balance of power at the beginning of the war )
That is why the Polish naval command, with Operation Peking , arranged for the large surface units to be evacuated to Great Britain before the war began . On August 29, the destroyers Burza , Błyskawica and Grom left their home port for England. At the start of the war on September 1, 1939, only the Gryf and the destroyer Wicher remained in Polish waters of large Polish warships .
Naval battle in the Bay of Danzig
On September 1, Gryf , Wicher , the two gunboats Komendant Piłsudski , Generał Haller and the six minesweepers Czajka , Rybitwa , Mewa , Czapla , Jaskółka and Żuraw left the base in Gdynia . The mission of the association was to mine the accesses to the Gdańsk Bay as part of Operation Rurka . Gryf picked up mines from a supply ship , and the flotilla headed for the Hela Peninsula .
During the crossing, the Polish ships were attacked by a total of 33 German Ju 87 B dive bombers of Lehrgeschwader 1 . The main target was the Gryf , loaded with 290 sea mines , which suffered minor damage to the steering gear , the engine telegraph, the compasses and the radio station from indirect hits. 22 crew members, including the commander Stefan Kwiatkowski, were killed.
The wicher was also slightly damaged, but remained operational. It managed to damage some of the German bombers, but none were shot down. After the attacks, the association escaped to the port of Hela at 6:45 p.m. , where the Gryf was to be repaired.
Defense of Hela
On the morning of September 3, the German destroyers Leberecht Maass and Wolfgang Zenker , under the command of Rear Admiral Günther Lütjens , arrived in front of Hela and opened fire around 7:00 a.m. Wicher and Gryf responded shortly thereafter, supported by a coastal battery of four 152 mm guns . The Gryf was hit twice by the German units, in return Leberecht Maass received a hit from the coastal battery. Then Wolfgang Zenker put a curtain of smoke , after which both ships broke off the battle and withdrew from the combat area.
After the sea attack was repulsed, the Gryf went into a dock . Two attacks by German Junkers Ju 87s followed later that morning . Another air raid at 9:10 a.m. struck the mine-layer and caught fire. The fire ignited the anti-aircraft ammunition, which resulted in secondary explosions. Two Polish sailors were killed. The ship remained buoyant.
The next attack took place around 2 p.m. when twelve Stukas attacked Gryf and Wicher with 250 kg bombs. The Gryf took a direct hit, hit the bottom, and the fire continued to spread.
At 4 p.m. and 5:25 p.m. German He 59 attacked the wreck and finally destroyed it. The remains of the ship burned for two more days.
On September 5, three gun carriages were dismantled, brought ashore and used as Battery No. 34 deployed in the Hela coastal defense system.
In November 1939, the Germans lifted the wreck and dragged it to a beach near Heisternest , where it was used as an artillery target.
After the end of the war, the Polish Air Force also used the wreck as a training target. Around 1960 the remains were lifted and scrapped.
Commanders
- February 27, 1938 - Komandor podporucznik Stanisław Dzienisiewicz
- Sep. 16, 1938 - komandor porucznik Roman Stankiewicz
- Apr. 01, 1939 - Komandor Podporucznik Stefan Kwiatkowski
- September 1, 1939 - captain marynarki Wiktor Łomidze
- September 1, 1939 - Komandor porucznik Stanisław Hryniewiecki
photos
120 mm guns in twin mounts of the Gryf (Naval Museum in Gdingen )
120 mm guns in twin mounts (rear)
See also
- ORP Gryf (other Polish ships named ORP Gryf )
Web links
Footnotes
- ^ "ORP" is the abbreviation for "Okręt Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej" and the name prefix of Polish ships. ORP means "Warship of the Republic of Poland".
- ↑ In the Polish language “Gryf” means “ griffin ”.
- ↑ "komandor podporucznik" corresponds to lieutenant commander
- ↑ "komandor porucznik" corresponds stabskapitänleutnant
- ↑ "kapitan marynarki" is comparable to first lieutenant at sea