ORP Wicher
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- For the other warship of the Polish Navy named ORP Wicher see: ORP Wicher (Smielyi class)
 ORP Wicher, the lead ship of her class |
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| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | ORP Wicher |
| Ordered: | April 2, 1926 |
| Laid down: | February 19, 1927 |
| Launched: | July 10, 1928 |
| Commissioned: | July 8, 1930 |
| Decommissioned: | September 3, 1939 |
| Fate: | sunk |
| Notes: | (remnants) |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 1,540 t full: 2,010 t |
| Length: | 106.90 m |
| Beam: | 10.50 m |
| Draught: | 3.50 m |
| Speed: | 33.8 kts |
| Complement: | 162 |
| Armament: | 1930: four 130 mm wz. 19/24 Schneider-Creusot Model 1924 guns, two 40 mm wz. 28 Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II AA guns, two double 550 mm/533 mm/450 mm torpedo launchers, two 240 mm Thornycroft depth charge launchers, two Wz BH200 depth charge launchers, 60 wz. 08 naval mines 1939: four 130 mm wz. 19/24 Schneider-Creusot Model 1924 guns, two 40 mm wz. 28 Vickers-Armstrong 2 pdr Mk II AA guns, four 13,2 mm Hotchkiss wz. 30 HMGs (2x2), two double 550 mm/533 mm/450 mm torpedo launchers, two Wz BH200 depth charge launchers, 60 wz. 08 naval mines |
ORP Wicher (Gale in English), the lead ship of her class, was a destroyer in the Polish Navy. She took part in the Polish Defensive War and was sunk by German bombers on September 3, 1939.[1]
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[edit] History
The ship was built at Chantiers Naval Francais and construction took 4 years, almost two more than initially planned. The steam turbines were built by Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in St. Nazaire, while the armament was mounted in the French Marine arsenal in Cherbourg. The ship was launched on July 10, 1928, but it was not until July 8, 1930, when she was finally commissioned by the Polish Navy in Cherbourg harbour. She was named ORP Wicher ("gale"), in accordance with the French tradition of naming destroyers after meteorological phenomena. A week later she arrived at Gdynia and became the first modern ship of the Polish naval forces. Her sister ship, the ORP Burza, was started at the same time, yet was finished two years later, roughly 4 years after the initial deadline.
During the Interbellum, ORP Wicher served a variety of roles, mostly political. For instance, on June 15, 1932, she was sent to the port of the Free City of Danzig (Gdańsk) to meet two British destroyers entering the port and to underline[2] the Polish political influence in that city. In March of 1931 she also sailed to Madeira, from where she brought Marshal of Poland Józef Piłsudski and his family. It was the farthest journey of that ship in its history. She also visited Stockholm in August of 1932, Leningrad in July of 1934, Kiel in June of 1935 and Helsinki and Tallinn the following month. In 1937, while serving as a school ship, she visited Parnava, Narva, Vyborg, Åbo (Turku), Mariehamn, Nexo, Skagen, Assens and Helsingor, as well as Tallinn and Riga.
By late 1930s it was apparent that the armament was insufficient. The French artillery had low rate of fire and the ship had inadequate protection against aerial bombardment. To solve the problem, in the autumn of 1935 two double 13.2 mm Hotchkiss heavy machine guns were added. On March 18, 1939 the ship, along with the entire Counter-torpedo Flotilla, was put on alert due to the Memel Crisis. Although the alert was called off a week later, the training cruises were halted. At the same time, most Polish surface vessels were prepared to be withdrawn to British ports in Operation Peking. ORP Wicher and ORP Gryf were the only major ships left at Gdynia harbour for the protection of the Polish shore.
[edit] Combat
After the outbreak of the Polish Defensive War, on September 1, 1939, she repelled a bombing raid at Gdynia, after which she set off for the Hel naval base, from where she was to commence Operation Rurka, an attempt to lay a minefield at the entrances to the Gdańsk Bay. ORP Wicher was to shield the operation, carried out by ORP Gryf, a minelayer[1], from the side of the German port of Pillau, assisted by a number of trawlers and monitors. After boarding naval mines from a floating depot, ORP Gryf and her flotilla headed for Hel Peninsula. En route she was attacked by a squadron of 33 German Ju-87B dive bombers and hit with several bombs, which caused minor damage and killed its captain. In what became known as the Battle of the Gdańsk Bay, ORP Wicher was not hit directly, but the German planes scored several close hits, breaking all windows on the bridge and fracturing the hull in several places. After arriving at Hel harbour at 18.45, ORP Wicher set off for the area of operation, where she arrived around 22.00. Wicher's captain, cmd. Stefan de Walden, did not know that the operation had been called off and in fact shielded the empty bay and not the Polish flotilla, which was anchored at Hel.[1]
Soon after her arrival, ORP Wicher's crew spotted two German destroyers, yet she did not open fire on them, not wanting to attract attention to the Polish units that were to be operating on the Gdańsk Bay. Later that night she also spotted a Leipzig class cruiser. At approximately 1 AM of September 2 ORP Wicher returned to Hel and discovered that the operation was called off. In the morning of September 3, 1939, ORP Gryf and ORP Wicher were attacked by two German destroyers, the Z1 Leberecht Maas and Z9 Wolfgang Zenker, firing at 9 nm. Polish warships and shore battery repulsed the attack, with ORP Gryf scoring two hits on the earlier. After that the German squadron put up a smoke barrier and withdrew.[1] Later that day ORP Wicher repulsed two air raids. However, in the third attack at approximately 15:00 she was attacked by two group of planes, and the German Luftwaffe scored four hits. Two bombs hit amidships, one hit the bow and the other was a close miss, yet it managed to fracture the hull at several places on the starboard side. ORP Wicher started to sink and the crew made it ashore, where they joined the Land Defence of Pomerania. Altogether, she lost 1 sailor and 22 wounded in the attack.
After the end of hostilities, in November 1939 the Germans raised the wreck and hauled it to shallow waters. According to some sources, she was to be raised from the bottom, repaired and commissioned to the Kriegsmarine under the name of Seerose. However, these plans never succeeded and ORP Wicher's wreck survived the war.
After World War II, in 1946, she was again raised and hauled outside the port to the area of Jastarnia. There she served as a target for aerial bombardment practice until 1955. In 1963 she was partially scrapped. The remaining part consists of merely 25% of the hull, mostly two chimneys and the rudder.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Peszke, Michael Alfred (February 1999). Poland's Navy, 1918-1945. Hippocrene Books, 37. ISBN 0781806720.
- ^ 15. Juni: Einlaufen des polnischen Zerstörers "Wicher" in den Danziger Hafen als Drohgebärde gegenüber Deutschland und Danzig [1]
[edit] External links
- Picture of ORP Wicher and her sister ship side by side at Tallin (Estonia) harbour during the goodwill visit
- ORP Wicher immediately after sinking
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