The polish

[Mr Evil]

Navy

Just on the eve of war, most of the major Polish Navy ships had been sent for safety to the British Isles (Operation Peking). There they fought alongside the Royal Navy. At various stages of the war, the Polish Navy comprised two cruisers and a large number of smaller ships, including three destroyers and two submarines that had left the Baltic Sea in late August 1939.

ORP Sokól
Cruisers:
ORP Dragon (Danae class)
ORP Conrad (Danae class)
Destroyers:
ORP Wicher (Wind) (Wicher-class)
ORP Burza (Storm) (Wicher-class)
ORP Grom (Thunder) (Grom class)
ORP Błyskawica (Lightning) (Grom class)
ORP Garland (G class)
ORP Orkan (M class)
ORP Ouragan (Hurricane, also known in some Polish sources as Huragan) (Bourrasque class)
ORP Piorun (Thunderbolt) (N class)
Escort destroyers
ORP Krakowiak (Cracovian) (Hunt class)
ORP Kujawiak (Kujawian) (Hunt class)
ORP Ślązak (Silesian) (Hunt class)
Submarines:
ORP Orzeł (Eagle) (Orzel Class)
ORP Sęp (Vulture) (Orzel Class)
ORP Jastrząb (Hawk) (S class)
ORP Wilk (Wolf) (Wilk class)
ORP Ryś (Lynx) (Wilk class)
ORP Żbik (Wildcat) (Wilk class)
ORP Dzik (Boar) (U class)
ORP Sokół (Falcon) (U class)
heavy minelayers:
ORP Gryf (Gryf class)
Light minelayers (ptaszki - birdies)
ORP Jaskółka (swallow)
Mewa (seagull)
Rybitwa (tern)
Czajka (lapwing)
Żuraw (crane)
Czapla (heron)

The above list does not include a number of minor ships, transports, merchant-marine auxiliary vessels, and patrol boats.

The Polish Navy fought with great distinction alongside the other Allied navies in many important and successful operations, including those conducted against the German battleship, Bismarck.

 

[Aramanthus]

That is cool to know. I know they are mentioned briefly in the Janes guide to WW2 ships. Thank you for providing the list!

 

[DM]

Blyskawica has been preserved as a museum ship and is based at Gdynia. I visited her in 1998 with the naval Wargames Society (Stu Barnes Watson organised some excellent naval history / beer drinking holidays, including this one which coveed Northern Europe).She is one of the best presented museum ships that I've visited (and I've done quite a few in my time )

 

[Mr Evil]

question is

if the polish arnt in VAS from the start ! why not ? if there not it would show this to be another naval game thats a personal project not a profesional project just a point of view mind

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Why aren't they in from the start? For the same reason the Russians aren't, I expect. The players are going to expect to see RN, USN, IJN, Kriegsmarine and Italian Navy first off. A navy that had a pair of cruisers and a dozen or so destroyers isn't that significant in a game that focuses on battleships and aircraft carriers.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

if the polish arnt in VAS from the start ! why not ? if there not it would show this to be another naval game thats a personal project not a profesional project just a point of view mind

You're joking I hope. Name me one naval minis game that DOES contain the Polish navy in the initial release? No matter how much individual ships and men of the Polish navy may have achieved, they are very much a niche interest.

Wulf

 

[Reaverman]

Name me one naval minis game that DOES contain the Polish navy in the initial release? Wulf

Defeat Below the Waves, its a rare out of print set of rules. Using a unique dice system. Both players just lob marbles at each other, and the first to cry loses :twisted:

 

[DM]

if the polish arnt in VAS from the start ! why not ?

Or the Dutch, Norwegians, Greeks, etc.

Its a question of space and cost. If players were prepared to shell out, say, 40 quid I guess you could have a more comprehensive coverage, or if a less "attractive" (more tabular) format for ship stats was used.

 

[Soulmage]

I don't recall ANY movies that feature the Polish navy as the front and center heroes of WWII. I'm sure there were some made in Poland, but not seen anywhere else.

Therefore, whatever their actual historical contribution to the war effort may have been, the Polish navy doesn't really capture the imagination the way the more commonly seen navies do.

Ultimately, VaS is a GAME - not a historical simulation or record. Thus, it needs to focus on the more famous things that people are excited about. Not the things that deservedly or not got very little "press."

 

[Wulf Corbett]

Defeat Below the Waves, its a rare out of print set of rules. Using a unique dice system. Both players just lob marbles at each other, and the first to cry loses :twisted:

I think I've played that...

Wulf

 

[Mr Evil]

all good and valid answers, but would be nice to be difernt, and im sure our polish players would love to see a polish fleet, hell for the first time the polish gamers would get an army they could relate to, an entire nation !!!


think out side the box and the box exspands.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

all good and valid answers, but would be nice to be difernt, and im sure our polish players would love to see a polish fleet, hell for the first time the polish gamers would get an army they could relate to, an entire nation !!!

And if there's enough interest shown in the game, who knows? Maybe there will be a Polish supplement, even if only a S&P article. I'm absolutely certain there will be considerably more interest in the Z-Plan article though.

think out side the box and the box exspands.

Think too far outside the box, and no-one buys the box.

Wulf

 

[Lord David the Denied]

all good and valid answers, but would be nice to be difernt, and im sure our polish players would love to see a polish fleet, hell for the first time the polish gamers would get an army they could relate to, an entire nation !!!


think out side the box and the box exspands.

How can there be a Polish fleet? They had two cruisers and a gaggle of destroyers and submarines. Yes, they participated in famous and important operations, but you won't be making a 10 point battle fleet for campaigns out of the Polish navy...

 

[admiral_tee]

if the polish arnt in VAS from the start ! why not ? if there not it would show this to be another naval game thats a personal project not a profesional project just a point of view mind

You're joking I hope. Name me one naval minis game that DOES contain the Polish navy in the initial release? No matter how much individual ships and men of the Polish navy may have achieved, they are very much a niche interest.

Wulf

A OOP game called NAVTAC, by Q-Games. It didnt have Polish naval forces, but it did have lists for these:

Argentina
Brazil
Chile
China
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Netherlands
Norway
Rumania
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
Russia
Yugoslavia

Just a little FYI, now back to eagerly awaiting VaS!

 

[DM]

How can there be a Polish fleet? They had two cruisers and a gaggle of destroyers and submarines. Yes, they participated in famous and important operations, but you won't be making a 10 point battle fleet for campaigns out of the Polish navy...

I suppse youl could deal with them in the same way that they operated historically in WW2, as part of the RN (also NZ, the post-1940 Norwegians, Dutch). IIRC Blyskawica operated with an RN destroyer flotilla, one of the destroyers involved in the sinking of the Scharnhorst (indeed perhaps THE destroyer that sank her by bowing her bows off with a torpedo) was the Norwegian Stord, and Canadian destroyers operated with RN flotillas in the Channel and the North Sea, to name but three cases. Oh, and HMNZS Achilles in the River Plate action.

 

[Wulf Corbett]

I suppse youl could deal with them in the same way that they operated historically in WW2, as part of the RN (also NZ, the post-1940 Norwegians, Dutch).

That would make quite a nice little article. A collection of RN-Allied ships and the scenarios they were involved in.

Wulf

 

[Lord David the Denied]

Agreed. Most of the Commonwealth could be dealt with this way.

 

[Makoto]

And would be quite good solution game-wise, as indeed our fleet operated as just a part of the RN (and on borrowed ships at times - both cruisers were just leased )

 

[Silvereye]

Submarines:
ORP Orzeł (Eagle) (Orzel Class)

I remember reading an short story on the Orzeł 's escape from the Baltic when I was younger. There was also one on the Arctic Convoys, the Q-ships in the Atlantic and a US destroyer under Kamikaze attack in the Pacific. Can't for the life of me remember what it was called.