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Image: Public domain (PD-Poland) · commons.wikimedia.org
ORP Błyskawica
Preserved afloat · Gdynia
ORP Błyskawica is a Grom-class destroyer built for the Polish Navy, famous as the only Polish naval vessel awarded the Virtuti Militari and as the oldest preserved destroyer in the world. She and her sister ship ORP Grom were designed as fast, heavily armed convoy-escort/coastal-defence destroyers for the interwar Polish Navy.
Kits of this ship
+ Add a kit| ORP Błyskawica wz.65 | Mirage Hobby | 1:400 | Injection-Molded Plastic | Available | |
No image | ORP Błyskawica wz.44 (Polski Niszczyciel II WŚ) | Mirage Hobby | 1:400 | Injection-Molded Plastic | Available |
No image | MODEL SET - ORP Błyskawica wz.44 (Polski Niszczyciel II WŚ) | Mirage Hobby | 1:400 | Injection-Molded Plastic | Available |
No image | ORP Błyskawica (1942) | WAK | 1:200 | Card | Available |
| ORP "Błyskawica" 1943/2012 Camouflage, Naval Destroyer [Kit with Collector's Coin] | Mirage Hobby | 1:400 | Injection-Molded Plastic | Discontinued | |
No image | ORP Błyskawica | WAK | 1:200 | Card | Discontinued |
No image | ORP Błyskawica 1941 - Polish Destroyer | Answer | 1:200 | Card | Available |
No image | Polish Destroyer Błyskawica 1944 | Niko Model | 1:700 | Resin | Available |
No image | Polish Destroyer Blyscawica 1938 | Niko Model | 1:700 | Resin | Available |
No image | ORP Błyskawica wz.65 Okręt flagowy Marynarki Wojennej PRL - Model Set | Mirage Hobby | 1:400 | Injection-Molded Plastic | Available |
No image | Destroyer Błyskawica | JSC | 1:400 | Card | Available |
Plans
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Build logs
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Resources
+ Submit a resourceHistory & specifications
- Liberation Route Europe: ORP Blyskawica Museum ShipArticle
Concise wartime operational history (Narvik, Dunkirk, Normandy, Ushant, Operation Deadlight) useful for a service-history summary.
- Museum Ships: ORP BlyskawicaWebsite
Museum ship directory entry with additional wartime combat statistics (convoys escorted, U-boats damaged, aircraft downed).
- Wikipedia: ORP BłyskawicaWebsite
General overview article with class, dimensions, armament, and service history details useful for modelers.
Museums & archives
- Naval Museum Gdynia: ORP Błyskawica a Real War VeteranMuseum
Official Polish Naval Museum page on the ship's wartime service, decorations, and postwar conversion, useful for accurate service history.
Photos
- Wikimedia Commons: ORP Błyskawica na Atlantyku (wartime photo)Photo
Public domain (PD-Poland) wartime photograph of the ship in the North Atlantic, taken between May 1944 and February 1945, suitable as a reference image for modelers.
History
Service history
Błyskawica escaped the Baltic just before the German invasion in 1939 as part of "Operation Peking," reaching Britain and operating under Royal Navy control for the rest of the war. She fought in the Norwegian Campaign, covered the Dunkirk evacuation, escorted dozens of Atlantic and Mediterranean convoys, took part in the Battle of Ushant in June 1944, and finished the war helping scuttle surrendered German U-boats during Operation Deadlight. After returning to Poland in 1947 she served in the postwar Polish Navy until a serious propulsion accident in 1967 led to her conversion into a coastal anti-aircraft ship; she was decommissioned in 1975/76.
Notable facts
Since 1976 Błyskawica has been preserved as a museum ship in Gdynia, moored near the sail training ship Dar Pomorza, and remains formally a commissioned unit of the Polish Navy with her own crew, still flying the naval ensign. She is celebrated for defending the town of Cowes, England, from a Luftwaffe air raid in 1942, and for logging around 146,000 nautical miles and 83 convoys during the war, making her a popular and well-documented subject for WWII destroyer scale models.