ORP „Šlązak“ – the Polish escort destroyer

"Hunt II" class escort destroyer ORP "Ślązak" was handed over to the Polish Navy on April 30, 1942. 34 units of "Hunt II" series ships were built, they were designed just before the start of the war and were intended to perform escort tasks - escorting convoys, destroying the enemy submarines and aviation. They had no torpedo armament, but were modern, well-equipped and well-armed ships, that posed a serious threat to enemy submarines and aviators. Handed over to the Poles, “Slązak” (formerly HMS “Bedale”) was built by “Hawthorn Leslie” Shipyard in Hepburn. The keel was laid on May 25, 1940, the hull was launched on July 23, 1941, and completed on April 30, 1942 as ORP "Ślązak". The Polish MW flag was hoisted on the ship on May 9 and on the same day the ship departed for a month-long routine crew training at the Scapa Flow naval base. Upon completion of training, joined the co-type ORP “Krakowiak” and escorted convoys in the English Channel. Throughout the war, the ship escorted cabotage and transatlantic convoys, fought with enemy ships, submarines, aviation, participated in the coverage of the Dieppe landing, where it was attacked 30 times by German aircraft, shelled coastal defense batteries 20 times, shot down 4 enemy planes. But the ship itself was also damaged by a near-exploded bomb and was sent for repairs after the operation. Later again accompanied the convoy of ships in the English Channel, in the Mediterranean Sea, took a modernization repair. At the end of September 1943, it escorted the heavily damaged battleship HMS “Warspite”, sailing to Malta, on April 17, 1944 the ship returned to Plymouth for regular repairs, in May it again participated in convoy escorts in the English Channel, covered the “D-Day” landing operation in Normandy, where it fought with German schnelboots and miniature submarines. On May 25, 1945, together with ORP "Krakowiak", she entered the former German naval base in Wilhelmshaven. Transferred to reserve in July 1946, returned to the British on August 28. In 1959 she became a frigate and was sold to India where she served until 1979 as “Godavari”. During the war, the ship sailed 104,000 sea miles under the Polish flag, escorted 104 convoys, carried out patrol tasks 11 times. The crew shot down 5 enemy planes.

A small, but quite complex and well detailed ship model in colorful late 1943 camouflage, designed for intermediate to advanced modelers only - and will turn heads.