- Yes
- No
History: Built by state engineering works in Modlin, Batory ( named after Stephen Báthory), was launched in 1932 on the 23rd of April and would be in service exactly 2 months later. The boat was assigned to Hel, were it would help curb smuggling in Gdansk Bay. For a while this boat would see an uneventful career.
When Germany invaded Poland, Batory would be mobilised into the Polish navy and join in the defence of Hel Peninsula, aiding in air defense and keeping the base in Gdynia maintained. On the 10th of September the boat was disarmed and the crew was incorporated into the defenders of the peninsula.
On the eve of Hel’s surrender, the crew of Batory would board the boat and escape under the cover of fog to Sweden. Both the boat and it’s crew were interned and didn’t return to Poland until the 24th of October 1945.
Batory escorted by HSwMS Jagare Ragnar
Upon it’s return the boat was renamed quite a few times. First it was Hel for where it operated, then it was Listopada 7 for the October revolutions date, then it was Dzierżyński named after Felix Dzierżyński and finally it was KP-1.
From here on, it enjoyed a quite service. It captured a West German fishing boat on the Polish border in 1949 and in 1959 became a training/rescue boat for the LPZ (while getting it’s final name, KP-1 Batory). Finally in 1969, the boat had been withdrawn from service. The boat would then be placed in the Hel naval base on monument sometime in the 1970s before being given to the Polish Naval Museum in Gdynia in December 2009.
(Model of Batory in Schleswig-Holstein Battery located at Hel)
Specifications:
Armament: 2x 7.92mm Mg 08 machine guns
Complement: 10
Length: 21m
Displacement: Around 28t
Engines: 2x Petrol engines (550hp) and 1x diesel engine (175hp)
Top speed: 45km/h
Sources:
https://web.archive.org/web/20110727182803/http://www.dobroni.pl/rekonstrukcje,1939-wirtualne-muzeum-orp-batory,1144
Mieczysław Kuligiewicz. Batory Pursuit Boat , TBiU No. 28 series. MON Publishing House. Warsaw 1974
Tomasz Miegoń. Batory to Gdynia . Seas, Ships and Vessels No. 1/2010