ORP Błyskawica

Type

Destroyer

Period

20th Century

Nation

Other

Overview: ORP Błyskawica is a Grom-class destroyer built for the Polish Navy, famous as the only Polish naval vessel awarded the Virtuti Militari and as the oldest preserved destroyer in the world. She and her sister ship ORP Grom were designed as fast, heavily armed convoy-escort/coastal-defence destroyers for the interwar Polish Navy. Specifications: Built by J. Samuel White in Cowes, England, laid down September 1935, launched 1 October 1936, and commissioned 25 November 1937. She displaced roughly 2,011 long tons standard (2,520 tons full load), measured 114 m in length with an 11.3 m beam and 3.3 m draft, and was capable of about 39 knots, making the Grom class among the fastest and most heavily armed destroyers of their era. Service History: Błyskawica escaped the Baltic just before the German invasion in 1939 as part of "Operation Peking," reaching Britain and operating under Royal Navy control for the rest of the war. She fought in the Norwegian Campaign, covered the Dunkirk evacuation, escorted dozens of Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, took part in the Battle of Ushant in June 1944, and finished the war helping scuttle surrendered German U-boats during Operation Deadlight. After returning to Poland in 1947 she served in the postwar Polish Navy until a serious propulsion accident in 1967 led to her conversion into a coastal anti-aircraft ship; she was decommissioned in 1975/76. Notable Facts: Since 1976 Błyskawica has been preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia, moored near the sail training ship Dar Pomorza, and remains formally a commissioned unit of the Polish Navy with her own crew, still flying the naval ensign. She is celebrated for defending the town of Cowes, England, from a Luftwaffe air raid in 1942, and for logging around 146,000 nautical miles and 83 convoys during the war, making her a popular and well-documented subject for WWII destroyer scale models.