ORP Jaskółka

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Career (Poland) Naval Ensign of Poland
Name: ORP Jaskółka
Launched: 11 September 1934
Commissioned: 27 August 1935
Fate: Sunk, 15 September 1939
General characteristics
Class and type: Jaskółka-class minelayer
Displacement: 183 tons
Length: 48 m (157 ft 6 in)
Beam: 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in)
Draft: 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in)
Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h/18 mph)
Complement: 30
Armament: 1 × 3 in (76 mm)
2 × anti-aircraft guns
20 × mines

ORP Jaskółka was the lead ship of her class of minelayers in the Polish Navy at the outset of World War II. Jaskółka was sunk during the Polish Defensive War.

[edit] History

Jaskółka was built at Gdynia; launched 11 September 1934; and commissioned 27 August 1935.

On 1 September 1939, Jaskółka under the command of captain Tadeusz Borysiewicz, along with other minelayers, engaged in combat with German aircraft on their way to execute a bombing raid of the Hel Peninsula, in what became known as the Battle of the Gdańsk Bay. During the battle, sister ship Mewa was damaged. On the night of the 12th, Jaskółka and Czajka fired upon German positions. During the next two days, the same ships installed mines around the Hel peninsula to keep German ships from bombarding the defenders. On 15 September, Jaskółka was sunk after it was hit by a German bomb in the port of Jastarnia.

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