The Second World War is one of the most talked and written about subjects in modern history with a massive impact on not only our popular memory but also on popular culture and yet there are so many facets that are forgotten about or have become obscured.
One such facet is the Polish Navy which had an active role during the September 1939 but also played a part fighting with the British Royal Navy which played apart in countless operations including Narvik, Dunkirk, the Battle of the Atlantic, hunting Bismarck, D-day, the defence of Cowes and even the scuttling of the U-boats during Operation Deadlight.
The Polish navy was founded on 28th November 1918 by order of the Chief or State Jozef Pilsudski who placed Captain Bogumil Nowotny as the Chief of the Navy.
This order gave some legitimacy to the previous orders of General Boleslaw Roja who commanded the Polish army in Galicia who, on 1st November, just four weeks previously, had ordered the former Austro-Hungarian river craft and monitors which were in Polish territories, to be concentrated at Krakow.
Poland had also managed to gain six of Germany's torpedo boats including the SMS V-105 and V-108
which had been under construction for the Dutch navy but when the First World War commenced they were taken over by the German Navy. They were christened ORP Mazur and Kaszub respectively in 1920 and 1921 despite the former being originally ceded to the Brazilian navy. There were also three A class coastal torpedo boats transferred in 1920 SMS A 59 (ORP Slazak), SMS A 64 (ORP Krakowiak) and SMS A 68 (ORP Kujawiak) and the A 80 (ORP Goral which was renamed Podhalanin in 1922).None of the German ships gained by Poland for coastal policing operations had any armament but it was a definite start.
Humble beginnings - ORP Mazur & other Torpedo boats
Poland's big issue was that in 1918 it lacked any coastal ports as the lands and borders were still under discussion but following the Treaty of Versailles they had a new coastline which ran for 44.5 miles long from the Hel peninsula to Gdansk which also granted Poland the fishing ports of Hel and Puck neither of which were far from ideal war ports whilst because of the unsuitability of the ports Gdynia was allowed to be used for trading ships only. Further to this there were no ports that could house shipyards so that the Polish state could build its own larger vessels.
This did not stop an ambitious Ten Year Naval development plan being drawn up. This plan saw the acquirement of two battleships (no preference to dreadnought or pre-dreadnought but I'm of the opinion the latter would be easier to get hold of and serve the purpose quite well especially that at this stage the new Reichsmarine only maintained a handful of pre-dreadnoughts), six cruisers fifty four torpedo boats, forty five submarines minesweepers, auxiliaries, fleet aviation and more river based warships which is truly an unrealistic end game considering the military aims, the available facilities, actual maritime needs of the state and more importantly, finances which I'll outline below:
As the European political situation evolved it became clear that the main two possible enemies that would be faced by them would be Germany and Russia, her two neighbours. Both had used large armies in the past and with the lack of coastline it would mean that any attack on Poland would be mainly by land. So what was the point in funding an expensive navy? This is more than likely why the fledging navy did not appear in the Polish military planning in the 1920s. This was true of the Russo-Polish war of 1919-1921 which only saw the river monitors being used with some having to scuttle during a Russian advance, though they were refloated post war.
Germany, for their part, would more than likely want to take the Danzig corridor to unite East Prussia, the Free city of Danzig and Germany proper by a land campaign.
With no shipyards the Polish government had to look to other nations to build their vessels or the other option was to buy warships from the Allies. Britain and France had continued to maintain older, and in some cases, obsolete warships for secondary and tertiary roles or in far away corners of the globe to police distant waters. Come 1918 with the end of hostilities and these vessels are no longer needed and are being sold off for scrapping but were also an excellent possible source for a new nation to gain any ships possible - especially as claims on other German or Austro-Hungarian ships were ignored by the other powers during the Treaty of Versailles negotiations.
The answer to Poland's naval needs came from France who saw the fledgling country as a great economic investment opportunity as well as a possible ally against a resurgent Germany with Poland taking Russia's place on the Eastern border. France's economic investment could be used to sure up Polish currency which was comparatively weak compared to the other Nations which meant they could not afford the second hand warships being sold off. The French also replaced the lackluster British Naval mission and began training and instruction of the embryonic Polish force into the skills they would need for war as well as Naval traditions and bureaucracy.
Poland might also use French money to fund a Minimum plan which was designed around the limited needs of Polish Naval planning.
With Poland's sea board being so small and effectively boxed into the Baltic with the only access policed the Germans in the Kattegat and with Russian forces to the East a force of expensive battleships seemed pointless as was a fleet of ocean going cruisers to police colonies and far off waters Poland didn't have or need at this stage so a more localised police or defence force would be needed. The 1921-23 plan saw Poland planning to purchase one light cruiser, four destroyers, six minesweepers, twelve torpedo boats and two submarines which although ambitious was more realistic than the Ten year plan but could still be seen as ambitious considering the other areas that required investment around the country like infrastructure or other more important branches of the military like the army..
Slowly expansion began with the former Imperial Russian Filn class gunboats ORP General Haller 
ORP Baltyk in the 1930s
andKomendant Pilsudski being bought from the slips in Finland but the fluctuating financial situations through 1922 and 1923 saw further developments put on hold until a new plan for a navy based around two cruisers, six destroyers and twelve each of torpedo boats and submarines which was supported by the French but the Polish Ministry of Finance was still balking at the scheme and so reduced it even further for the programme 1925-28. An agreement was struck with France in 1924 and in 1925 the destroyers ORP Wicher and Burza were laid down in French shipyards. They would be followed by the Wilk class submarines Wilk, Rys and Zbik all laid down in 1927. They also acquired the veteran Protected cruiser D'Enrecasteaux as the depot ship and rechristened Baltyk in 1927.
The 1929 Wall Street crash further tampered with Naval expansion plans across the globe and hopes for a new War port, two destroyers, five submarines (and tender vessel), four minesweepers and a minelayer again looked dubious but orders were placed with the British to build three destroyers, the Dutch two submarines and four minesweepers were built in Poland. At the same time the Slawomir Czerwubski was bought to serve as the Submarine's tenders.
As the rise of Germany became apparent and with the growing threat of invasion the Polish government again looked at building more warships over a ten to twelve year period which would see an increase of the fleet's size over a six year plan between 1936 and 1942 taking the number of destroyers to eight with twelve submarines , one minelayer and twelve minesweepers supported by ten torpedo boats but this was streamlined into a ten year plan for 1946 for one Cruiser, twelve destroyers and twenty one submarines supported by other ships.
However as the inevitability of war loomed the Commander of the Polish Surface fleet, Counter Admiral Jozef Unrug, believed that a direct naval campaign against the numerically superior and heavier armed Kriegsmarine would be pointless so began to favour other options that included trying to cause maximum damage for minimal loss, a hit and fade campaign and holding off as long as possible with the forces he had available but more on those later.
