ORP ''Gryf'' (English: "

Griffin The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late Latin, Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail ...

") was a large Polish Navy minelayer, sunk during the 1939 German invasion of Poland. She was one of two large Polish ships that were not evacuated to Great Britain during

Operation Peking The Peking Plan"Peking" was one contemporary spelling for the city now spelled 'Beijing' in English. In modern Polish the name is written as "Pekin". Some modern Polish works refer to the "Pekin Plan". The original orders used the spelling "P ...

prior to the outbreak of the

Polish Defensive War The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week after ...

( ''Wicher'' was the other). She was sunk in Hel harbour on 3 September 1939 during the opening stage of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

History

Built from 1934 at French

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

Chantiers et Ateliers A. Normand in

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very cl ...

, she was launched in 1936. Built after a genuine French project to Polish specifications, she was intended as a large minelayer with an armament close to that of a

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed in ...

. Powered by two Sulzer ''8SD48'' engines of each, she was capable of 20 knots (37 km/h/23 mph), fast for its size. It also had quite a long range of roughly at 14 knots (26 km/h). As the Polish Navy was small and no other state expressed a need for such a vessel, she remained the only ship of that class. Prior to the outbreak of

she also served as a

school ship A training ship is a ship used to train students as sailors. The term is mostly used to describe ships employed by navies to train future officers. Essentially there are two types: those used for training at sea and old hulks used to house classr ...

and could take on board up to 60 additional students and

NCOs A non-commissioned officer (NCO) is a military officer who has not pursued a commission. Non-commissioned officers usually earn their position of authority by promotion through the enlisted ranks. (Non-officers, which includes most or all enli ...

Combat

On 1 September 1939, with six minesweepers, ''Gryf'' left the naval base at Gdynia for the

Operation Rurka Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, a failed attempt to lay a minefield at the entrances to the Gdańsk Bay. After taking aboard

naval mine A naval mine is a self-contained explosive device placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Unlike depth charges, mines are deposited and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, or contact with, any ...

s from a floating depot, the flotilla headed for

Hel Peninsula Hel Peninsula (; pl, Mierzeja Helska, Półwysep Helski; csb, Hélskô Sztremlëzna; german: Halbinsel Hela or ''Putziger Nehrung'') is a sand bar peninsula in northern Poland separating the Bay of Puck from the open Baltic Sea. It is loc ...

, assisted by ORP ''Wicher'' and two gunboats. En route she was attacked by a squadron of 33 German

Ju 87B The Junkers Ju 87 or Stuka (from ''Sturzkampfflugzeug'', "dive bomber") was a German dive bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann, it first flew in 1935. The Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937 with the Luftwaffe's Cond ...

dive bomber A dive bomber is a bomber aircraft that dives directly at its targets in order to provide greater accuracy for the bomb it drops. Diving towards the target simplifies the bomb's trajectory and allows the pilot to keep visual contact througho ...

s and damaged with several close misses. Although the damages were minor, the ship lost 22 sailors, including its captain Lt Cmdr

Stefan Kwiatkowski Stefan Kwiatkowski was a Polish commander of the Polish–Soviet War and a recipient of the Silver Cross of the Virtuti Militari. He was known for being killed on the first day of World War II during the Battle of Danzig Bay while commanding th ...

in what became known as the

Battle of the Gdańsk Bay __NOTOC__ The Battle of Danzig Bay ( pl, bitwa w Zatoce Gdańskiej) took place on 1 September 1939, at the beginning of the invasion of Poland, when Polish Navy warships were attacked by German Luftwaffe aircraft in Gdańsk Bay (then Danzig Bay ...

. His deputy, Capt.

Wiktor Łomidze Viktor Lomidze, also known by his Polish name of Wiktor Łomidze-Wachtang, was a Georgian-Polish military officer. After the Bolshevik take-over of his country in early 1920s he emigrated to Poland, where he joined the Polish Army and then the Po ...

decided to throw all defused naval mines in the waters for fear of explosion and headed for Hel naval base. There it was decided to use the ship as a floating

anti-air Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based, ...

artillery battery guarding the harbour. In the morning of 3 September 1939, ORP ''Gryf'' and ORP ''Wicher'', moored in the harbour, were attacked by two German destroyers, ''Z1 Leberecht Maass'' (with Rear Admiral

Günther Lütjens Johann Günther Lütjens (25 May 1889 – 27 May 1941) was a German admiral whose military service spanned more than thirty years and two world wars. Lütjens is best known for his actions during World War II and his command of the battleship d ...

) and ''Z9 Wolfgang Zenker''. Polish warships and a shore battery repulsed the attack, with ''Gryf'' scoring at least one hit on ''Leberecht Maas'' (4 killed). ''Gryf'' herself was slightly damaged with one shot. Later the same day, after three attacks of German bombers, ''Gryf'' was heavily damaged, and partially sank in the harbour. By 5 September the fire was extinguished and two

stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

120 mm artillery mountings (single and twin one) were dismounted and placed ashore as a shore battery ''No. 34'', part of the defensive system of the Hel Peninsula. They reached readiness only on 30 September, just before capitulation. In November 1939, after the end of the invasion hostilities, the Germans raised the wreck and hauled it to a beach near

Jastarnia Jastarnia ( csb, Jastarniô, german: Heisternest) is a resort town in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodship, northern Poland. It is located on the Hel Peninsula on the Baltic Sea. It is a popular Polish seaside resort and small fishing port. The m ...

, where it was used as an artillery practice target. After World War II the wreck was used as a target by the

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...

. In 1957 it was decided that the wreck be raised. By 1960 the work was completed and most of the salvaged parts were scrapped.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gryf Minelayers of the Polish Navy Minelayers of France Ships built in France 1936 ships World War II minelayers of Poland World War II shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea Maritime incidents in September 1939 Ships sunk by German aircraft France–Poland military relations Shipwrecks of Poland Minesweepers sunk by aircraft