ORP Piorun (G65)

ORP Piorun returns to Plymouth after the struggle against the German battleship Bismarck
History
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Nerissa
Operator:	Royal Navy
Ordered:	15 April 1939
Builder:	John Brown & Company, Clydebank
Cost:	£400,963.16s
Laid down:	26 July 1939
Launched:	7 May 1940
Notes:	Transferred to Polish Navy, October 1940
Poland
Name:	ORP Piorun
Namesake:	Lightning
Operator:	Polish Navy
Completed:	4 November 1940
Acquired:	Transferred to Polish Navy, October 1940
Commissioned:	4 November 1940
Identification:	Pennant number: G65
Fate:	Returned to Royal Navy, 1946
United Kingdom
Name:	HMS Noble
Acquired:	August 1946
Recommissioned:	26 October 1946
Fate:	Scrapped, 1955
General characteristics (as built)
Class and type:	N-class destroyer
Displacement:	1,773 long tons (1,801 t) (standard) 2,384 long tons (2,422 t) (deep load)
Length:	356 ft 6 in (108.7 m) (o/a)
Beam:	35 ft 9 in (10.9 m)
Draught:	12 ft 6 in (3.8 m)
Installed power:	40,000 shp (30,000 kW) 2 × Admiralty 3-drum boilers
Propulsion:	2 Shafts; 2 steam turbines
Speed:	36 knots (67 km/h; 41 mph)
Range:	5,500 nmi (10,200 km; 6,300 mi) at 15 knots (28 km/h; 17 mph)
Complement:	183
Sensors and processing systems:	ASDIC Type 285 gunnery radar Type 286 radar surface-search radar
Armament:	3 × twin QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XII guns 1 × single QF 4-inch Mk V (102 mm) AA gun 4 × single 20 mm (0.8 in) Oerlikon AA guns 2 × twin QF 0.5-inch (12.7 mm) Mk III machineguns 1 × quintuple 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes 45 × depth charges, 1 × rack, 2 × throwers

ORP Piorun was an N-class destroyer used by the Polish Navy during the Second World War. The name is Polish for lightning. Ordered by the Royal Navy in 1939, the ship was laid down as HMS Nerissa before being acquired by Poland in October 1940 before completion. Following the Second World War, the vessel was returned to the Royal Navy and recommissioned as HMS Noble until being discarded in 1955.

The ship was built by John Brown & Company of Clydebank, Glasgow. She was laid down in July 1939, launched on 7 May 1940 and completed on 4 November 1940. Initially commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Nerissa, she was later transferred to the Polish Navy as a replacement for the destroyer ORP Grom, which had been lost off the Norwegian coast on 4 May 1940.

Piorun was based in Great Britain and commanded by Commander Eugeniusz Pławski. Between 13 and 15 March 1941, while undergoing repairs in John Brown's shipyard, she took part in the defence of Clydebank against air raids by the Luftwaffe. A memorial to the crew of the ship was later erected in Clydebank.

On 22 May 1941, Piorun, with ships of the British 4th Destroyer Flotilla (HMS Cossack, HMS Maori, HMS Sikh and HMS Zulu), commanded by Captain Philip Vian, provided additional escort to troop convoy WS8B en route from Glasgow to the Indian Ocean. On 25 May, Vian's destroyers (including Piorun) were detached from the convoy to join the search for the German battleship Bismarck.