ORP Grom (1936)
ORP "Grom" was the lead ship of her class of destroyers serving in the Polish Navy during World War II. She was named after the Polish word for Thunderbolt, while her sister ship translates to lightning. Design. "Grom" was thought of as a large destroyer, similar to flotilla leaders. She and sister ship ORP "Błyskawica" were to support the outdated French-built and in the role of the core of the Polish Navy in a possible conflict. As Poland had only one major seaport, the main task of the Polish naval forces was to secure supplies shipment  to and from allied countries. Because of that, the "Grom" class was designed to fulfill both the role of shore defence and convoy escort and was supposed to be stronger than single enemy destroyers. Two Parsons steam turbines of altogether, three boilers and two shafts allowed "Grom" to travel at , faster than the contemporary designs like the US and es, the British , or the German s. Also, as it was not clear whether the ships would be used to secure convoys to the Polish port of Gdynia or the Romanian port of Constanţa (through the Romanian Bridgehead), the possible range  was much larger than in the case of destroyers designed exclusively for the Baltic Sea. The ship had an effective range of at . Construction and career. "Grom" was ordered from the British J. Samuel White shipyard in Cowes and was laid down in 1935. The destroyer was commissioned in 1937. The commanders of the ship were: On 30 August 1939, the Polish destroyers , , and "Grom" were ordered to activate the Peking Plan, and the warships headed for Great Britain, from where they were to operate as convoy escorts. On 1 September 1939, Polish destroyers met with the British destroyers and  . The British ships led the Polish flotilla to Leith, and in the night the Polish destroyers came to Rosyth. During her operations in the Norwegian Campaign, "Grom" was ranked by the German soldiers as probably the most hated of all the Allied ships deployed to the area. This hatred was founded on the fact that "Grom" took an intense interest in all hostile movements on shore and was reputed to spend hours lurking the coast in order to harass German forces. On 4 May 1940, "Grom" carried out what turned out to be the last of her many naval gunfire  support missions in the Narvik area in the Rombaken fjord. She was attacked by a Heinkel He 111 bomber from Kampfgeschwader 100 (piloted by Lt. Korthals). "Grom" was hit by two bombs and sank after internal explosion. The wreck was never raised and it was not until 6 October 1986 that it was explored by divers for the first time.