Polish Navy order of battle in 1939

Add links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

This article details the

Counter-Admiral Józef Unrug (Commanding Officer of the Fleet) and Vice-Admiral Jerzy Świrski (Chief of Naval Staff). Ships were acquired from France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and the navy was to be able to secure the Polish supply lines in case of a war against the Soviet Union
. By September 1939 the Polish Navy consisted of 5 submarines, 4 destroyers, and various support vessels and mine-warfare ships.

This force was no match for the large German Navy, and so a strategy of harassment and indirect engagement was implemented. Lacking numerical superiority, Polish naval commanders decided to execute the Peking Plan, an operation to withdraw most of the naval vessels to British ports, from where the ships were to secure convoys with aid for Poland, either bound for Gdynia or for Constanca in Romania.

Peace-time organization

The Polish Navy was organized into a Warsaw-based Naval Command, subordinate to the Commander in Chief of the Polish forces, and several naval and riverine bases and flotillas. The navy was commanded by Counter Admiral Józef Unrug and his Chief of Naval Staff Jerzy Świrski. Apart from its own bases, the navy also commanded the Westerplatte Transit Wharf, an extraterritorial base and depot in the Free City of Danzig, commanded by Henryk Sucharski and Franciszek Dąbrowski. The naval bases included:

The navy itself was divided onto four flotillas:

Finally, under the influence of French maritime traditions the Naval Officers' School in Gdynia (under Captain

school ships
, including most of the Polish surface vessels.

War-time organization

Prior to the outbreak of

Naval Air Squadron
(Morski Dywizjon Lotniczy).

Land Coastal Command

The

Land Coastal Command (Lądowa Obrona Wybrzeża, LOW), subordinate to the Toruń-based military area command led by General Władysław Bortnowski, was led by Colonel Józef Sass-Hoszowski and, since July 23, by Colonel Stanisław Dąbek. It was to organize the defence of the Polish seashore, the borders with Nazi Germany and Free City of Danzig, as well as to prepare the defence of the Polish naval bases and the Westerplatte
outpost in Danzig.

As it was clear that the Polish defenders of the so-called Polish Corridor would be cut off from the Polish mainland, the defence was organized into several fortified lines that were to shield the naval base of Hel Peninsula and the city of Gdynia from all sides, and moved from General Bortnowski command to that of Counter Admiral Józef Unrug. The units included:

Altogether, the forces subordinate to Colonel Dąbek numbered about 15,000 men.

Separate from the Land Coastal Defence were:

  • the Hel Fortified Area (Rejon Umocniony Hel, ca. 3,000 men) under Ctr. Adm. Włodzimierz Steyer
    • supported by 4th battalion of the
      Border Defence Corps
      ;
  • Westerplatte garrison (ca. 200 men)

The remainder of the Polish forces, including the improvised units, the mobilized

40 mm wz. 38 guns
.

Naval Coastal Command

The Naval Coastal Command (Morska Obrona Wybrzeża, MOW) included all of the Polish naval vessels, as well as the

Operation Peking. These included ORP Burza under Lt. Cmdr. Stanisław Nahorski, ORP Błyskawica under Lt. Cmdr. Włodzimierz Kodrębski and ORP Grom under Lt. Cmdr. Aleksander Hulewicz
.

The only large surface vessels to be left in Poland before the outbreak of hostilities were the heavy minelayer

Wiktor Łomidze) and its escort, the destroyer ORP Wicher under Stefan de Walden
.

The submarine flotilla was left in Poland with the task of disrupting the enemy movement in the area of the

Operation Worek. Commanded by Lieutenant Commander Adam Mohuczy
, the flotilla included:

Apart from the abovementioned ships, a number of other vessels were left in the Polish naval bases, including several smaller torpedo boats, mine trawlers, minelayers and auxiliary vessels. The Minelayer/Minesweeper Flotilla (Flotylla Minowców) was composed mostly of the so-called birdies (ptaszki, a nickname coined after the fact that all of the

Jaskółka class
ships were named after a different species of non-raptor birds).

Two obsolete

school artillery ship ORP Mazur and mobilized patrol boat of the Border Guard, ORP Batory
.

Naval Air Squadron

The

CANT Z.506 Airone, purchased in Italy
.

Both squadron were to provide reconnaissance for the ships of the Polish Navy, while the

Army Pomorze fighting in southern Pomerania. However, the Naval Air Squadron was mostly destroyed on the ground on September 1, with its commander being the first Allied naval officer to be killed in action in World War II
.

Riverine flotillas

Main article: Riverine Flotilla of the Polish Navy
See also:
Order of Battle of the Riverine Flotilla of the Polish Navy

During the

Pinsk Marshes in modern Belarus proved to be almost impassable to troops of both sides. Lack of roads and railways posed a serious danger to infantry and cavalry that could easily be cut off both by the enemy and the weather. Because of that, a number of river monitors were either constructed or acquired from private owners and armed. They were used on the Pripiat River
, as well as its extensive river basin. After the war, some of the ships were returned to their owners, while the rest remained in active service and were pressed into the so-called Pinsk Flotilla.

In peacetime, the

Polish Defensive War, a number of ships and detachments of the Riverine Flotilla were moved to the Vistula
River as a Separated Detachment of the Vistula River (Oddział Wydzielony Rzeki Wisły), better known as the Vistula Flotilla. During the fight against the Soviets and the Germans, most of the ships were sunk by their crews to avoid capture.

See also

References

  • Cristino Castroviejo Vicente (2001). "The Baltic in Flames: the 1939 naval campaign". SERGA (March–April 2001): 28–37.
  • Wilfred P. Deac (1996). "The Polish Submarine "Orzel"". World War II Review. 11 (No.2) (July 1996): 14–18.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Polish_Navy_order_of_battle_in_1939&oldid=1072232517"