ORP Wicher (1930)
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The ORP Wicher was a destroyer in the Polish Navy during World War II . The Wicher was built in France between 1927 and 1930 and was the lead ship of the Wicher class of the same name . The warship was sunk by German planes in the Bay of Danzig on September 3, right at the start of the war .
Prehistory and construction
The ship was built by the Chantiers Naval Francais shipyard in Caen from 1927 as a result of a counter-deal. The Polish government needed a French loan , which it was only to 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 commissioned.
Construction took four years, two years more than originally planned. 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 10 July 1928 by the stack ran, it took two years for the Polish Navy the ship on July 8, 1930 the port of Cherbourg under the name Wicher put into service. The name means "strong wind" and goes back to the French tradition of naming warships after weather phenomena. One week after commissioning, the Wicher reached its home port of Gdynia and was the first modern new building of the young Polish Navy.
The sister ship Burza , although laid down in the same year , was not put into service until two years later. The construction costs for the two destroyers amounted to 22 million zlotys .
Mission history
Use until 1939
In the 1930s the Wicher served in various roles, mostly political purposes, to demonstrate Polish naval power.
In March 1932, the Wicher went to Madeira to pick up Marshal Józef Piłsudski and his family from there. That was the destroyer's farthest voyage. The Wicher was sent to the port of Danzig on June 15, 1932 together with two British destroyers . The threatening gesture was intended to reinforce the Polish claim to political influence in the Free City administered by the League of Nations . In August of the same year there was a visit to Stockholm . In 1934 Copenhagen and Leningrad were visited, in 1935 Kiel , Helsinki and Reval .
During the period of service it was found that u. a. the anti-aircraft armament is inadequate, which is why there were some renovations and modernizations in autumn 1935. There were four heavy 13.2 mm Hotchkiss - machine guns mounted in two double carriages. (→ Arming the Wicher )
In 1937 the Wicher served as a training ship and visited Pärnu , Narva , Wyborg , Turku , Mariehamn , Nexø , Skagen , Assens , Helsingør , Reval and Riga .
When the Memel crisis broke out in March 1939 , the Wicher and other units were put on alert for a week.
Combat use
Balance of power at the beginning of the war
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|---|---|---|
| Battleships / ships of the line | 2 | 0 |
| Light cruisers | 3 | 0 |
| destroyer | 10 | 1 |
| Minesweepers | 30th | 6th |
| Submarines | 10 | 5 |
In the course of 1939 it was decided to rescue the large Polish surface units to Great Britain in the event of war with Germany. This plan, known as Operation Beijing , concerned the three destroyers Burza , Błyskawica and Grom , which left on August 29 and were able to escape to Great Britain.
The only larger surface units that remained off the Polish coast were the Wicher and the heavy miner Gryf . At the start of the war on September 1, 1939, the German Navy was vastly superior to the Polish. (→ Balance of power at the beginning of the war ) The superiority of the German Air Force was even more overwhelming.
Naval battle in the Bay of Danzig
The Second World War began on September 1, 1939 with the bombardment of the Westerplatte by the German ship of the line Schleswig-Holstein .
On September 1, the Wicher received the order to escort the heavy miner Gryf and various smaller units in Operation Rurka . The aim of the campaign was to mine the entrances to the Gdańsk Bay, especially in the direction of the German naval base in Pillau . After Gryf took over sea mines from a depot ship, the small fleet kept moving towards the base in Hela. During the crossing, they were of 33 dive bombers type Ju 87 B of Lehrgeschwader 1 attacked. The Gryf was slightly damaged and the commander killed. Some Stukas were also hit and slightly damaged. The Wicher was also damaged by indirect hits. 6.45 p.m. the flotilla entered the port of Hela.
The Wicher left the port to run to the planned area of operations, where she arrived around 10 p.m. Operation Rurka had meanwhile been canceled, but the Wicher's commander , Stefan de Walden , was not aware of this. After arriving in the operational area, two German destroyers were sighted. It was probably about Richard Beitzen and Georg Thiele . Although the conditions were ideal for an artillery or torpedo attack at a distance of 4,500 m, de Walden refrained from an attack as his orders clearly forbade this. He should only attack if the enemy spots the Gryf . But she remained in Hela, and he was not informed of the abortion of the operation, which made these orders pointless. A short time later, another German ship was cleared up and an attack was not carried out this time as well. The ship was identified as a cruiser , but this cannot be true because the German cruisers were in other sea areas. It was probably a destroyer too.
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. With the support of a coastal battery of four guns of caliber 15.2 cm answered Wicher and Gryf shortly thereafter. The Gryf was hit twice, but was able to inflict serious damage on the Leberecht Maass . The also damaged Wolfgang Zenker put a curtain of smoke and both ships withdrew from the combat area.
After the sea attack was repulsed, Stukas attacked later in four waves. The Wicher received four direct hits from two 250-kg and two 50-kg bombs around 3 p.m. and sank. One seaman was killed and 22 wounded. On the same day the Gryf was sunk by Stukas.
Whereabouts of the wreck
When the fighting ended, the Germans recovered the wreck and dragged it into shallower water. Some sources claim that the Navy planned to lift the ship and put it into service under the name Seerose . After the war ended, the wreck was lifted again in 1946 and removed from the port area. It served as a training target for air raids until 1955 and was partially scrapped in 1963. Over 25% of the fuselage has been preserved to this day. The current position of the wreck is 54 ° 36 ' N , 18 ° 46' O .
See also
- ORP Wicher (other Polish ships with the name Wicher )
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyers in World War II , Motorbuchverlag, Stuttgart, 2nd edition 1997, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .
Web links
- Wicher on uboat.net ( engl. )
- a picture of the two Wicher- class destroyers in the port of Gdynia
- Side elevation
