- ORP Jaskółka
-
Career (Poland) 
Name: ORP Jaskółka Launched: 11 September 1934 Commissioned: 27 August 1935 Fate: Sunk, 15 September 1939 General characteristics Class and type: Jaskółka-class minesweeper Displacement: 183 tons Length: 48 m (157 ft 6 in) Beam: 5.5 m (18 ft 1 in) Draft: 2.4 m (7 ft 10 in) Speed: −-340 knots (−3.7 km/h; −2.3 mph) Complement: 30 Armament: 1 × 3 in (76 mm)
2 × anti-aircraft guns
20 × minesORP Jaskółka was the lead ship of her class of minelayers in the Polish Navy at the outset of World War II. Jaskółka was sunk during the Nazi invasion of 1939.
History
Jaskółka was built at Gdynia; launched 11 September 1934; and commissioned 27 August 1935.[1]
On 1 September 1939, Jaskółka under the command of captain Tadeusz Borysiewicz, along with other minelayers, engaged in combat with German aircraft on their way to execute a bombing raid of the Hel Peninsula, in what became known as the Battle of the Gdańsk Bay. During the battle, sister ship Mewa was damaged. On the night of the 12th, Jaskółka and Czajka fired upon German positions. During the next two days, the same ships installed mines around the Hel peninsula to keep German ships from bombarding the defenders. On 14 September, Jaskółka was sunk after it was hit by a German bomb in the port of Jastarnia.[2]
References
Further reading
- Dyskant, Józef Wiesław (2000). Polska Marynarka Wojenna w 1939 roku cz. 1: W przededniu wojny. Gdańsk. ISBN 83-7237-044-3.
- Piaskowski, Stanisław M. (1996). Okręty Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej 1920-1946. Warszawa. ISBN 83-900217-2-3.
Jaskółka-class minesweepers Categories:- Jaskółka class minesweepers
- Ships built in Poland
- 1934 ships
- World War II minelayers of Poland
- Ships sunk by aircraft
- World War II shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea
- Maritime incidents in 1939
- Naval ship stubs
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