Grom class destroyer

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ORP Grom

ORP Błyskawica

The Grom class destroyers were two destroyers, built for the Polish Navy by J. Samuel White, Cowes. They were laid down in 1935 and commissioned in 1937. The two Groms were some of the most heavily-armed destroyers on the seas before World War II.

Despite having ordered its previous pair of destroyers (ORP Burza and ORP Wicher) from France, a country with which it had strong ties, Poland decided to acquire the second pair from Great Britain, possibly in recognition of the excellence of British destroyer designs at the time. The selected design resulted in large and powerful ships, superior to German and Soviet destroyers of the time, and comparable to the famous British Tribal class.

The main armament was changed form the 130 mm used on the Burza class to the standard British destroyer calibre of 4.7 inch (120 mm). However, the guns were not British, but were instead Swedish Bofors 50cal QF M34/36, same as those used previously on the minelayer ORP Gryf.

There were two ships built:

Grom - Sunk on 4 May 1940 in Ofotfjord near Narvik
Blyskawica - Currently preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia

Two more ships of this class were ordered in 1939 to be built in Gdynia, but war broke out before they were laid down. They would have been the first major modern warships to be built in Poland.

Just before the war broke out, the two destroyers were evacuated to Britain to fight alongside the Royal Navy. Since they were designed for Baltic operations, they had to be modified soon after their arrival there to improve stability, to enable them to operate successfully in the rough waters of the North Sea and the Atlantic. Grom was lost in this state in 1940. In December 1941 the remaining ship, Blyskawica, had the original 4.7 inch guns replaced by eight 4-inch (102 mm) guns in twin mountings. Various other modifications of armaments and sensors were made as the war progressed.

Specifications:

Displacement: 1975t, 2183t full load
Dimensions: 114 m x 11.3 m x 3.3 m
Armament (initial): 7-4.7 in (120 mm) (3x2,1x1), 4-40 mm AA (2x2), 8 13,2 mm MG (4x2), 6-21 in (533 mm) TT (2x3), DCTs
Propulsion: 54,000 shp Pearson geared turbine engines = 39 kt
Complement: 192