Temporary exhibition about ORP Grom

A temporary exhibition about ORP Grom is displayed at Narvik War Museum until the 31st of August 2018. The exhibition is a result of a cooperation with the Polish Naval Museum in Gdynia (Muzeum Marynarki Wojennej w Gdyni). The texts in the exhibition are in Norwegian, English and Polish. Items from Narvik War Museum’s collection are exhibited.

The Polish Navy’s destroyer ORP Grom (“Thunder”) was commissioned in 1937. The day before the German invasion of Poland in 1939, the skip headed for Great Britain, where it was to operate in The English Channel and the North See. On the 19th of April 1940 ORP Groms and its sistership ORP Błyskawica («Lightning») headed for Northern Norway, where they participated in the Battle of Narvik. On the 4th of May 1940, three German aircrafts Heinkel He 111 attacked ORP Grom by Narvik. The ship was hit by two bombs and sank rapidly. 59 of 180 crew members were killed.

The ORP Grom’s wreck lies at the bottom of the sea near Narvik, at 70 to 105 meters depth. The monument “Krigeren Grom” (“Warrior Grom”) in memory of the dead was raised on Grom’s Square in Narvik in 1979. It’s sistership, ORP Błyskawica, is currently accessible to the public as a floating museum in Gdynia harbor.

 

 

 

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