ORP Garland

HMS Garland (H37), also known by its Polish designation ORP Garland, was a G-class destroyer of the Royal Navy. It was the 14th ship to bear that name since 1242. During most of the World War II she served in the Polish Navy.

She was laid down August 22, 1934 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, Limited, at Govan in Scotland and launched on 24 October 1935. After the final tests the ship was delivered to the Royal Navy on March 3, 1936 and entered the service under the name of HMS Garland. Initially a part of the Atlantic Fleet, later she was moved to Malta, where she served in the Mediterranean Fleet. Used mostly in the role of a convoy escort, she was rearmed in 1940 to better serve that purpose. The anti-submarine and anti-air armament was added at the cost of fewer main artillery guns. Shortly before the refurbishment, on May 3, 1940 in Malta she was transferred to the Polish Navy as a replacement for the Polish ships lost in British service.

Initially it was planned to rename the ship to a new, Polish name. However, the Polish Navy decided to keep the British name as a sign of courtesy, as the HMS Garland was the oldest known name of a British warship. After a short period of training of a new Polish crew, the ship was attached to the British 14th Destroyer Flotilla and took part in various convoys in the Mediterranean. On June 28, 1940, ORP Garland took part in a naval battle at the shores of Calabria, where it assisted in sinking of an Italian destroyer Estero. On July 17 of that year she also assisted in sinking the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni in the battle of Cape Spada. During one of the convoy escort missions between Gibraltar and Alexandria, the ship was attacked by Italian bombers and damaged by a bomb. The cam shaft was broken by a close miss and the ship's engines stopped, but the anti-air artillery repelled the attack and ORP Garland was safely delivered back to Gibraltar.

In September of 1940 she was moved to Great Britain and joined up with the other Polish destroyers (ORP Burza and Błyskawica) and took part in numerous patrol duties on the English Channel and the North Sea. In July of 1941 it took part in the Allied landing on Spitsbergen. After that, in September, she joined ORP Piorun in Operation Halberd, escorting a large convoy to Malta. In the winter she was again moved to the British Isles, from where she escorted numerous Atlantic and Arctic convoys. She especially distinguished herself during the PQ 16 convoy to Murmansk between May 25 - May 27, 1942, fighting all day against enemy aircraft, with the loss of 25 killed and 43 wounded. Upon her return to the UK, she was moved to Greenock shipyard, where she was repaired and refurbished. After that she returned to her previous role of a convoy escort and in late 1943 took part in a British landing on Azores, where allied naval bases were established. In 1944 she was modified as destroyer escort: her armament was reduced to two 120 mm guns, and Hedgehog was added.

From there the ship operated at the western shores of Africa and in the spring she returned to the Mediterranean, where she took part in the Operation Dragoon, that is the Allied landing in Southern France. After that, she was used in anti-submarine operations in the Mediterranean. On September 19 1944 she took decisive part in sinking U-407. In October of 1944 she supported the Allied landing in Greece and the following month she was withdrawn to Great Britain. Until the end of World War II she defended the Western Approaches against the German U-Boots. After the war the ship took part in sinking of German U-Boots captured by the Polish 1st Armoured Division in the port of Wilhelmshaven. On September 24, 1946, she was decommissioned and returned to the Royal Navy.

During her service in the Polish Navy she traversed 217,000 nautical miles. She sunk one German U-Boot and damaged additional 2 (one of them presumably sunk), downed 3 enemy planes and took part in sinking of two large Italian ships. It also damaged 3 additional surface vessels.

On November 14, 1946 she was decommissioned by the Royal Navy and sold to the Royal Netherlands Navy. After a refurbishment she was commissioned in 1949 and renamed to HNLMS Marnix. She served as an artillery school ship and later was reclassified as a frigate. Decommissioned in 1964, she was scrapped in Antwerp four years later. It is to be noted that Garland was one of only two ships of the G class destroyers to survive the war. The other, HMS Griffin, served in the Royal Canadian Navy.

See also

* HMS Garland for other ships of this name.