Wicher - class destroyer " Wicher " - class destroyer s served in the Polish Navy during World War II . Two ships of this class were built for the Second Polish Republic by Chantiers Naval Français during the late 1920s . They were modified versions of the " Bourrasque " - class destroyers built for the French Navy . History . After the Great War , Poland ' s shoreline was very short ( only 142 km ) and there was no need to create a large naval force . Initially consisting merely of four naval trawler s and two monitor s — all inherited from the Kaiserliche Marine — in 1924 , the Polish Navy was to start the construction of nine submarines . As Poland ' s greatest possible enemy at that time was perceived to be the Soviet Union , their only task would be to secure supply convoys from France in case of a war . However , due to the economic crisis and the customs war with Germany , this plan had to be abandoned and eventually only three ships were ordered from France . At that time , the government of Władysław Grabski tried to obtain a large credit from France . It has been suggested that many members of the French government were stock owners of the newly created Chantiers Naval Francais shipyard in Caen , and such a credit would be granted if the shipyard signed a contract with the Polish government . As the shipyard had no experience in shipbuilding and submersibles were believed to be very complicated to build , on September 9 , 1925 it was decided instead to purchase two destroyers for the approximate price 22 million złoty s . After initial talks , the shipyard presented Poland with a plan for two modified " Bourrasque " - class destroyers . On April 2 , 1926 the contract was signed . From the very beginning of the project , it was readily apparent that the " Wicher " class had severe problems : the destroyers were relatively slow , had a large silhouette with three large funnels , and were inadequately armoured . Additionally , flaws in the project ' s planning resulted in poorly designed water - resistant chamber s and pipelines , which could result in the ship being immobilized after only minor damage . Also the ships suffered from poor stability due to fuel tanks being located high up on the superstructure just below the bridge . As the shipyard had absolutely no experience in building vessels of this size , there were numerous other construction flaws that were only discovered after the ship was delivered . Some of the flaws were corrected on the insistence of the Polish admiralty , but others could not be resolved . Regardless of the many drawbacks to the " Wicher " class , since the purchase was based on political , rather than military needs , the Polish authorities decided to continue on and have the destroyers built . Construction of each ship took four years , almost two years more than initially planned . The steam turbines were built in Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire in St . Nazaire , while the armament was mounted at the French marine arsenal in Cherbourg . The first ship was launched on July 10 , 1928 , but it was not until July 8 , 1930 , when she was finally commissioned by the Polish Navy in the Cherbourg harbour . She was named ORP " Wicher " ( " gale " ) , in accordance with the French tradition of naming destroyers after meteorological phenomena . A week later she arrived at Gdynia and became the first modern ship of the Polish naval forces . The second ship of the class , ORP " Burza " ( " storm " ) , was not finished until 1932 , almost four years after the initial deadline . ORP " Wicher " was sunk in the opening days of the Invasion of Poland in 1939 . ORP " Burza " survived the war , became a museum ship and was eventually scrapped in 1977 .