ORP Blyskawica

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greendragon
Posts: 179
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:16 am

ORP Blyskawica

Unread post by greendragon »

The pride of the Polish Armed Forces and the Navy.
The oldest preserved destroyer and still alive; built by J. Samuel White on Cowes UK, commisioned 1937.
A lot of photos in internet.
Fought in WW2 from first to last day, Atlantic, Med, Arctic; member of the famous the 10th Destroyer Flotilla .
Preserved very well and is on the Polish Navy list so her future is safe.
Looks almost like in WW2; camouflage, main guns, masks, two mountings of double 40mm Bofors, etc.
What makes significant difference is that she is high on the water having of course no fuel, ammo etc. ; old lady on high heels :)
In 2005 the counter of the visitors showed 5 millions, today it might be around 10 millions (average is 200 000 a year) - will check it out.
Visiting the ship is "the must" for the Polish who enjoy vacations in Gdansk-Gdynia area.

TBC

GD
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DaveH
Posts: 395
Joined: Fri Aug 10, 2018 4:58 pm
Location: PLYMOUTH , DEVON

Re: ORP Blyskawica

Unread post by DaveH »

One to be proud of GD , look forward to some photos of her . Keeping and remembering the past hopefully preserves the future , or I like to think so .
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jbryce1437
Posts: 1879
Joined: Sun Aug 05, 2018 7:28 pm
Location: Roker, Sunderland

Re: ORP Blyskawica

Unread post by jbryce1437 »

I think this colour photo of her came off the old site.

Jim

blyskawica1.jpg
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HMS Raleigh 1963 , HMS Collingwood 1963 & 67 , HMS Ark Royal 1964-7, HMS Undaunted 1968-71, HMS Victory (Fleet Maintenance Group) 1971-72, HMS Exmouth 1972-74
JEM, EM, OEM, LOEM, POOEL
Then 28 years in the Fire Brigade
Retired since 2002
greendragon
Posts: 179
Joined: Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:16 am

Re: ORP Blyskawica

Unread post by greendragon »

Besides visual similarity of the ship to her WW2 times inside there is still almost intact and used till 1976 (!!!) the British fire control system which consists of Fire Control Box (FCB); Fuze Keeping Clock( Mk III, Serial No 254; Manufactured by Coventry Gague&Tools Ltd ); Roll Corrector Unit (RCU and a Mark V rangefinder the latter unchanged from WW2 times except the optics which was replaced by the Soviet navy type and short of the 285 radar antenaes which actually had not been removed before Blyskawica went to Poland.
Today the units have Polish instructions and other markings which replaced the original British ones.

Regards,

GD
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