Polish Cruiser Krakow

## ORP Kraków

Kraków as designed

ORP Kraków was a unique heavy cruiser of the Polish Navy in World War II.

## Background

In 1935, the Polish Navy, having recently laid down the Grom-class destroyers, saw the need for two modern cruisers and 12 destroyers. The design requests for these two cruisers were passed to first the #history Design Teams, and the selected designs to British shipbuilders. The most preferred design, *Buława ,* was laid down in 1935.The *Kraków* design was then selected as although the initially more popular *Tadeusz Kościuszko* design was cheaper and more practical, *Kraków* gave heavier firepower, higher speed and improved protection, and made full use of the allocated tonnage the Polish Navy was willing to pay for.

## Design

Kraków was 189m long at the waterline, had an overall beam of 19.75m and a maximum draft of 7.90m. She displaced 10000 tons standard. This proved to be a fine, slender hullform with good seakeeping and efficiency- 77400 SHP provided by oil fired boilers and 4 shaft geared turbines pushed the ship to a design speed of 32.50 knots.

Protection came in the form of an all-or-nothing scheme, with a 5" thick declined main belt completely covering the vitals, as well as 5" on the turrets and conning tower. Her deck armor was 1" thick on the bow, and 2" thick over the vitals and steering gear. A heavy 4" thick structurally mounted torpedo bulkhead was put in place to compensate for a shallow underwater protection system.

Kraków was to be heavily armed, with 9 8"/50 Mk. VIII guns in 3 turrets. Her secondary battery was to be made up of 10 Bofors 10.5cm M/1932 dual-purpose guns in 5 twin mounts. She also carried 6 21" torpedo tubes. Kraków had a significantly smaller profile than Buława and was more specialized to operating with Polish destroyers.

## History

Kraków was ordered in January 1936 laid down at the Devonport Dockyards in Plymouth. Her hull was about 20% completed when the Second London Naval Treaty was signed, restricting construction of smaller capital ships. Priority was instead shifted to Buława, while other parts of Kraków were prepared separately, but not assembled, and overall construction soon came to a halt.

In September 1939, Poland was invaded by German forces and World War II broke out. It was decided that construction was to resume on Kraków which was transferred to the Royal Navy, with the approval of the Polish Government. Her hull was slowly completed and was 90% prepared for fitting out by late 1940. However, Plymouth was subjected to increasingly intense German bombing, which destroyed some of the parts prepared for the Polish cruiser. The decision was made to clear Kraków out of Devonport to free the port up, and the hull was towed to Cowes.

At J. Samuel White Shipbuilding in Cowes, the builders of destroyer Błyskawica, construction of Kraków resumed once more in June 1941. By early 1941 most of her weapons were in place. The decision was made to replace her Bofors 10.5cm guns with the same number of QF 4 inch Mk XVI twin mounts for logistical reasons. However, on the night of 4th to 5th May 1942, 160 German bombers attacked Cowes. The incomplete and immobile Kraków contributed AA fire along with the heroic Błyskawica to defend the town, and was struck by two German bombs. A hit penetrated the thin X turret roof of Kraków, and exploded inside it, destroying it. Following the raid the decision was made to rush Kraków to completion, with the ruined X turret removed and plated over, its place taken by additional 40mm Bofors mounts. Kraków's torpedo tubes were also removed. In July 1942, without proper trials, Kraków was finally commissioned in this state, and part of her crew remained Polish.

Expected to be faster and considered more versatile than her contemporaries, Kraków was assigned to cover destroyer operations in the Atlantic. In September 1942, with a British destroyer group, she helped to intercept and sink a force of German "torpedo boats" (in reality small destroyers). However, Kraków's hurried completion led to her experiencing some unreliability, and her reduced firepower hampered her operational capability. With the loss in power in one of her boiler sets reducing her speed to 27 knots in November 1942. Kraków returned to Cowes for completion. A new X turret was fitted, as well as her catapults and seaplanes, but not torpedo tubes, and AA was reinforced once more.