Wicher class
 The wicher
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The Wicher class was a destroyer - class of the Polish Navy in World War II and after. The two Polish ships were built in France between 1927 and 1932 . The Burza was before the war began in Peking Plan successfully evacuated with two other major Polish ships to Britain.
The Wicher was sunk by German aircraft on the third day of the war. After the end of the war, the Burza returned to Poland, where it was in use until 1960.
Prehistory and construction
The Republic of Poland, which emerged as a result of the First World War , initially only had smaller and older naval units, most of which came from the inventory of the Imperial Navy . The Polish coast to the Baltic Sea was relatively short with a length of 142 km and was mainly limited to the Gdańsk Bay , which is why no larger surface units were actually found necessary.
At the beginning of the 1920s , as a result of the Polish-Soviet War, the Soviet Union was seen as a possible enemy, and the Polish Navy was given the task of securing the supply convoys from the allied France in a possible conflict. From 1924, planning began for the construction of nine submarines .
After the customs war with Germany, Poland ran into financial difficulties and the Władysław Grabski government had to take out a loan in France. It is believed that several influential members of the French government were shareholders in the newly established Chantiers Naval Français shipyard in Caen . In any case, the loan was made conditional on the Polish Navy placing an armaments contract with this shipyard. However, the new shipyard had no experience with the relatively new and complicated submarine weapon, which is why the original submarine plans were reduced to the three Wilk- class boats and instead two destroyers were commissioned on April 2, 1926.
The two ships were laid down in 1927. The class was developed from the French Bourrasque class . The construction had serious flaws from the start. The destroyers were relatively slow, had a very high silhouette with their three large funnels and were poorly armed. The under-constructed bulkheads posed a problem as they made the ships very vulnerable to underwater damage. Finally, the ships also lacked stability, as the tanks were unfavorably arranged. Some of the design flaws could later be corrected.
Construction itself was delayed by two years in the case of the Wicher . The Burza was even delivered almost four years late.
The steam turbines were built by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in Saint-Nazaire , the armament supplied by the French naval arsenal in Cherbourg .
The construction costs for the two destroyers amounted to 22 million zlotys .
Armament
One of the main criticisms of the ships was the poor armament, which is why it was changed several times. In the case of the Burza , which had been in action for 28 years and served in various military alliances, there were also political reasons for the conversion measures.
Wicher
1930-1935
- four guns 13.0 cm Schneider-Creusot model 1924 in four gun turrets (wz. 19/24)
- two anti-aircraft guns 4.0 cm Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II in two mounts (wz. 28)
- four torpedo tubes (2 double mounts) of caliber 55.0 cm (convertible to 53.3 cm and 45.0 cm)
- two water bomb thrower 24.0 cm Thornycroft
- two depth charges wz. BH200
- up to 60 sea mines wz. 08
1935-1939
- four 13.0 cm Schneider Creusot model 1924 guns in four turrets (wz. 19/24)
- two 4.0 cm anti-aircraft guns Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II in two mounts (wz. 28)
- two 13.2 mm Hotchkiss - sMG (wz.30)
- four torpedo tubes (two double mounts) of caliber 55.0 cm (convertible to 53.3 cm and 45.0 cm)
- two depth charges wz. BH200
- up to 60 sea mines wz. 08
Burza
1932-1940
- four guns 13.0 cm Schneider-Creusot model 1924 in four gun turrets (wz. 19/24)
- two anti-aircraft guns 4.0 cm Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II in 2 mounts (wz. 28)
- four 13.2 mm sMG (watermark 30) Hotchkiss in two double mounts (since 1935)
- six torpedo tubes (2 triple mounts) of caliber 55.0 cm (convertible to 53.3 cm and 45.0 cm)
- two depth charges wz. BH200
- a 24.0 cm Thornycroft depth charges
- up to 30 sea mines wz. 08
1940-1942
- four 130 mm Schneider Creusot model 1924 guns in four turrets (wz. 19/24)
- a 76 mm automatic cannon
- two 40 mm anti-aircraft guns Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II in two mounts (wz. 28)
- four 13.2 mm sMG Hotchkiss (wz.30) in two double mounts
- eight 12.7 mm SMG Vickers in two quadruple mounts
- three torpedo tubes (one triple mount) of caliber 55.0 cm (convertible to 53.3 cm and 45.0 cm)
- two depth charges wz. BH200
- two 24.0 cm Thornycroft depth charges
1942-1946
- two 130 mm Schneider Creusot model 1924 guns in two turrets (wz. 19/24)
- a 76mm automatic cannon
- four 40 mm Mk VIII anti-aircraft guns in a quadruple carriage
- four 20-mm Oerlikon - air defense -MKS
- three torpedo tubes (a triple mount) of caliber 55.0 cm (convertible to 53.3 cm and 45.0 cm)
- a Hedgehog water bomb thrower
- two depth charges wz. BH200
- four depth charges 24.0 cm Thornycroft
From 1955
- four 100 mm guns in stand-alone setup
- eight 37 mm anti-aircraft guns in four double mounts
- a depth charge launcher
- four depth charges
Ships of the class
-
Wicher ( Polish : "Wicher" = " strong wind ")
- Keel laid : February 19, 1927
- Launched : July 10, 1928
- Commissioned: July 8, 1930
- History and whereabouts:
- defended the port of Hela at the beginning of the war together with Gryf and was sunk by German aircraft there on September 3, 1939.
-
Burza (Polish: "Burza" = " thunderstorm ")
- Keel laying: November 1, 1927
- Launched: April 16, 1929
- Commissioning: July 10, 1932
- History and whereabouts:
- Evacuated to Great Britain August 30, 1939 as part of Operation Peking
- Participation in various Allied operations until 1944 , then training ship
- 1945 U-boat supplier
- 1946 to the Royal Navy
- 1951 back to Poland and completely overhauled
- 1955 re-commissioning
- Closed on June 28, 1960
- Museum ship in Gdynia until 1977 , then broken off
See also
- ORP Wicher (other Polish ships with the name Wicher )
literature
- MJ Whitley: Destroyer in World War II . Motorbuchverlag, 2nd edition, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01426-2 .
