The destroyer moored in the Polish city of Gdynia
is not just another museum ship.
Błyskawica is an honored veteran of World War II and a true hero.
Błyskawica was one of the most extensively used Polish ships.
During World War II, she sailed almost 140,000 miles,
took part in over 100 patrol missions and battles, and escorted over 90 convoys.
In 1918, after the end of World War I,
Poland was reconstituted as an independent state.
And since the country received a sea border, it needed its own fleet.
After 123 years, Poland regained its independence.
The restored state already had experienced officers and seamen
who had served in the fleets of their former countries.
In 1918, these people made their first attempt to create the Polish Navy.
Fusing people who came from three different systems wasn’t an easy thing to do.
For a long time, the Poles cherished this idea of Polish independence,
Polish sovereignty, “Polish might” if we may say so.
And then the Polish officers who served in the Russian,
German, and Austro-Hungarian militaries
were given their state and told,
“Here it is, your country!”—this was uniting them.
They served their homeland, their new, restored country.
In the second half of the 1920s,
Poland began to order ships in Holland, France, and Great Britain.
Błyskawica and her sister ship Grom
were built by British shipyards and became the most advanced destroyers of the time.
Specifications of Destroyer Błyskawica
Length: 114 m
Beam: more than 11 meters
Draft: more than 3 meters
Standard displacement: 2,144 tons
Armament
Main Caliber (as of 1937, when the ship was commissioned)
Seven 120-millimiter Bofors thirty four thirty six guns
Błyskawica was upgraded and rearmed many times in the course of the war.
Her first cannons couldn’t elevate over 35 degrees,
which is why they were replaced with the Armstrong Vickers guns.
Anti-Aircraft Artillery
2 coaxial Bofors wz. 36 guns, caliber 40 mm
4 coaxial Hotchkiss wz. 30 guns, caliber 13.2 mm
Mines and Torpedoes
2 triple 550-mm torpedo launchers, capable of firing 533- and 450-mm torpedoes
On amidship platforms, Błyskawica
had two 550-mm torpedo launchers,
manufactured by British company Thornycroft.
Then she received the Russian-made 533-mm torpedo tubes,
which you can see here now.
The previous launchers could also fire French 450-mm torpedoes.
This was possible thanks to special reducers, designed by two Polish engineers.
Obstacle mines
Maximum capacity: 60 mines
Standard capacity: 44 mines
Anti-Submarine Weapons
2 depth charge throwers with a load of 20 depth charges
Main Power Plant
3 Admiralty boilers
2 Parsons geared steam turbines
Power: 54,000 hp
Maximum speed: about 40 knots
Błyskawica had such an impressive speed
thanks to the innovative solutions implemented in her engine and boiler rooms.
Two boilers were installed in one waterproof compartment,
and the third boiler was in another room.
The boiler rooms had an in-line arrangement,
which allowed gases to be removed via a single tube.
We are now entering the boiler room.
The temperature inside the boiler reached 2,000 degrees.
Exhaust gases were removed through the tubes above us.
Water was heated there and turned into steam.
Cruising range: 2,000 nautical miles at 15 knots
On November 25, 1937, the Polish flag was raised on Błyskawica.
The ship left British town Cowes,
where she had been under construction for two years;
and five days later the destroyer solemnly arrived in Polish Gdynia.
Meanwhile, the situation in Europe was deteriorating.
Just two years after the destroyer was commissioned,
the war with the Third Reich broke out.
Poland became the first country attacked by Nazi Germany.
Since our fleet was just a few ships strong,
the Polish command decided that the most advanced of them
were to leave Poland and join the British Navy
in order to fight for independence side by side with the allies.
These ships arrived in British port Leith
on September 1, the day when Germany attacked Westerplatte
and began its invasion of Poland.
The Polish ships immediately joined British naval operations:
patrolling the waters of Ireland,
hunting enemy submarines, and escorting convoys.
Having demonstrated courage and good naval skills,
Polish seamen quickly earned the trust of their British brothers-in-arms.
Under an agreement with the UK,
Polish ships preserved the right to have their own command
and sail under their flag while acting as part of the Royal Navy.
The Poles were thus allowed to preserve their independence aboard their ships.
Therefore, these ships were the only independent Polish territory,
where the Polish flag and Polish uniform were used.
By receiving all these units, these foreign ships,
Great Britain was primarily making a political act.
Having all these forces was a symbol of united Europe—civilized,
democratic countries—fighting against the evil forces of Hitler’s Germany.
This was the point.
Another question is how these crews,
these units understood their role.
They believed they were fighting for their country.
“We’re fighting here, but we’re fighting for Poland.”
From the first days of the war, until its end,
Błyskawica took an active role in the operations of the British Navy.
She was the first ship in World War II to attack and damage a German submarine.
At Narvik, the destroyer shot down two German aircraft;
during the war, she destroyed six of them overall.
During the allied evacuation from the coast of France to Great Britain,
Błyskawica was one of the first ships to enter Dunkirk,
scouting the area and shooting down an enemy airplane.
After three years of war,
Błyskawica arrived in British town Cowes for another refit,
and this time fortune gave the destroyer
a chance to defend the place where she was born.
On the night of May 4, 1942, the town was attacked by 160 Luftwaffe bombers
that aimed to destroy the local shipyards.
Some of the aircraft flew into the mouth of the Medina River,
where Cowes wasn’t protected by anti-aircraft guns.
And this is when Błyskawica stepped in to defend the town.
The destroyer left the shipyard’s berth and, under a hail of high-explosive bombs,
headed directly towards the wave of attacking aircraft, firing at them.
Her guns conducted uninterrupted fire,
the barrels were becoming so hot
that they had be doused with water constantly.
The concentrated fire from Błyskawica’s anti-aircraft guns
was so effective that the bombers had to fly higher and decrease their accuracy.
At dawn, when the enemy aircraft flew away after failing to achieve their goal,
it became clear:
Błyskawica helped save Cowes from destruction.
Local citizens still remember how Błyskawica defended them.
Special memorial plaques were placed both on the ship and in Cowes.
They commemorate the prowess of the Polish crews
who also helped put out fires after the battle…
and a Polish doctor who provided medical assistance to the citizens.
Błyskawica was considered a lucky ship by both Polish and British sailors.
While her sister ship Grom was sunk by German aviation as early as 1940,
during her six years of combat actions, Błyskawica lost only seven crew members.
The funny thing is that the larger the ship,
the fewer tasks she has; the smaller the ship,
the more missions she performs.
If we look at the destroyer type,
right off the bat you can name such tasks as anti-submarine warfare,
air defense, artillery support of landing operations,
artillery support of ground operations, and, most importantly,
reconnaissance missions.
That’s why destroyers of all nations,
including British and Polish destroyers,
were always on the cutting edge of an attack.
They were the first to enter a fight and the last to leave a battle.
Błyskawica carried out her combat missions in various regions—
from the subtropics of the Mediterranean Sea to the cold of the Arctic,
the Irish Sea, and the North Sea.
The destroyer took part in the Allied landings in North Africa and Normandy.
The destroyer’s last combat operation was in January 1945,
when she escorted a convoy near the coast of England.
Then the ship was under repair till the end of the year,
and in this condition she met the joyful news of the victory.
Meanwhile, the geopolitical situation in Europe had changed completely.
The Polish People's Republic emerged, and was recognized by other nations,
including the United Kingdom.
In 1947, Błyskawica was to return home.
Sailors wondered whether they should return to the country,
which was very different from the homeland they had left in 1939.
Most of the sailors had already dealt with Soviet authorities after 1940.
Some of them had been sent to Siberia before,
but, under an agreement between the Polish government-in-exile and the USSR,
they could go to Great Britain and join the Polish Navy.
The people who had been arrested and exiled
didn’t want to return to the country they were afraid of.
A number of Polish officers, non-commissioned officers,
and seamen decided to return home.
But since it was the Stalin era, most of them were removed from their positions.
Several officers were even sentenced to death.
Only a few returned to service in the Polish Navy after being arrested.
Among them was Commander Romanowski,
the captain of Błyskawica who brought the destroyer from Great Britain to Poland.
On July 4, the destroyer arrived in Gdynia.
The very same day she started her service with
the fleet of the Polish People's Republic.
For the next 20 years,
Błyskawica was used to train new sailors and also served as a warship.
During the 10 years from 1951 through 1961,
Błyskawica was overhauled twice and rearmed once.
After this, she was recognized as the best ship in the Polish Navy twice.
Her crew had to work hard to earn this title.
In 1966, I set foot on the ship deck and I remained there for the next 32 months.
The temperature in the boiler rooms reached 60 degrees,
so we had to work dressed in shorts.
But the cruises were the worst.
A shift lasted six hours and was followed by six hours of free time.
We would get tired quickly.
If you fell asleep at night,
older sailors would pour a bucket of seawater on your head
to wake you up and prevent you from falling asleep until morning.
The worst thing was cleaning the ship after returning from a cruise.
We would scrape everything with brushes, oil, and oakum until it shined.
When we had visitors,
they would ask us if the place was actually run by women,
since the ship appeared so tidy and neat.
But no ship can last forever,
and one day, luck left Błyskawica.
On August 9, 1967, the destroyer was out on an exercise,
when an accident occurred in one of her boiler rooms.
A high-pressure steam pipe ruptured,
which took the lives of seven crew members.
At 9:07 a.m. an explosion occurred.
I was in Room G, as I was off duty.
I looked at the clock immediately
and this time became stuck in my head.
The explosion happened in the second boiler room,
but we didn’t know which one of the boilers blew up.
We opened security valves to let the steam out.
Then we shut the oil pumps so that the oil wouldn’t
spill in the boiler rooms and on the power pumps.
The leader of the repair party opened the hatch to the boiler room
where the accident took place,
but the steam pressure (25 atmospheres, 350 degrees)
was so high that he was thrown upwards,
and if it wasn’t for the bulwarks,
he would’ve fallen into the sea.
He was burned all over.
Another sailor plugged in the firehose,
but he was too scared to go in.
I felt a sudden surge of courage.
I took the hose and started pouring water on ventilation vents as I was descending.
I saw my friends on the floor.
I went to the boiler room and called to them, but nobody answered.
I went back up, and the leader asked me about the situation.
Even though I wasn’t supposed to do this in the presence of an officer,
I took off my beret and threw it on the ground, as I was exhausted.
Then I fainted.
The Navy command found it unreasonable to fully
restore the destroyer after the accident.
Błyskawica was towed to Świnoujście
to become part of the local air defenses.
And in 1975, it was decided to make her a museum ship.
For this purpose, the destroyer was returned to Gdynia,
and a year later, on May 1, 1976, Błyskawica opened as a museum ship.
We’re very happy that this ship exists and is well maintained to this today.
Guided tours are held here,
so that visitors can learn about the history of armaments and the Polish Navy.
Every single day we conduct the flag-raising ceremony,
welcome VIPs, and perform other duties.
There are always people watching us from the promenade.
Of course, they’re attracted not only by the ships,
but as soon as a vessel is available for sightseeing,
tourists want to see every corner of her.
They’re always happy to touch upon the history of the fleet.