Polish Naval Programmes:
Sources came from the internet and the Conway book I mentioned earlier and from the warship projects discussion boards and BATTLESHIPS AND BATTLE CRUISERS 1905-1970 by Siegfried Breyer
Before I start I have to tell you guys that if we speaking with poles and their navy programmes one word is accurate here: MEGALOMANIA! You will see!:
After ww1 when Poland again born after ww1 they wanted a "few" ships from the nations they created from:
2 Gangut class battleships, 1 Bayan class Armoured, 2 Svetlana class Light Cruisers and 14 Novik class Destroyers.
Why? I've got this reply:
"As far as I can recall what I've read on these issues Polish government of the time maintained that Poland had contributed to economical growth of Russia, Prussia/Germany and Austria since the countries had partitioned her in the end of the 18th century. So parts of their fleets seemed to be built (in some part) for taxes paid by the Polish people. And such was the reasoning behind the claims regarding taking over of some ships, esp. of Russian navy.
Another issue was that at that particular time top posts in the just born Polish navy were mainly held by officers (incl. admirals) who had formerly served with the Russian navy. They know Russian ships better than anything else, so their thinking focussed on them rather than ex-German ships for instance."
But soon a naval programme born:
1920 Fleet Expansion programme which to be finished around 1929:
2 Battleships (Unknown from whom or what equipment)
6 Cruisers most probably CL and from France
12-28 Destroyers, from France and UK
as you can see still big programme for a newly formed country.
again a reply:
"Anyway it was of course not realistic, and it surely was not a building programme. Poland wanted to take over some ex-German or ex-Russian ships. It was thoutht that those countries' fleets had been built using Poland's economical potential, so when Poland re-appeared on the map after the Great War ended, she should be given a proportional part of these fleets.
Even during Polish-Soviet peace talks in 1920/1921, there were proposals of the Polish part that some war reparations should have been paid by Soviet Russia not in money or other goods but in the form of ships. All of these efforts to acquire a number of (capital) ships remained fruitless however, and the Polish nave must have been satisfied with few ex-German torpedoboats and minesweepers as well as two ex-Russian gunboats purchased in Finland."
1924 small naval programme:
2 Cruisers probably heavy cruisers with similarity to the Italian Trento class
6 Destroyers
12 Submarines
By this time Poland was found out that the French built ships were not satisfactory enough so these ships would be built by the British or probably by the Swedes and Italy (I'm not sure about these tough...)
Cruiser similar to this just with 2 funnels and the catapult on the turrets:
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/bk/NWS/Regia_Marina/Trento_CA/image-html/1923_cruiser.html
Paradox don't like this sites code so I put it here this way
1936/37 naval programme (what the polish admirals wanted)
2 Battleships similar to the 1938/39 one probably meant to counter the German Scharnhorsts
2 Heavy cruiser of 10.000tons 3x3 203mm Guns 9x 120mm AA guns 4x2 Torpedoes 10.000shp engine 200mm Armour
9 Destroyers
18 Submarines
1937/38 naval programme (what the polish admirals wanted)
3 Battleships of 25.000 tons 350mm Belt armour 120-140.000shp engine 3x3 305mm Cannons 4x3 or 6x2 150mm Guns 2x3 Torpedoes
1 Aircraft Cruiser probably similar to the Swedish Gotland crusier
12 Destroyers
21 Submarines
Proposed Naval Plan of 1942: (to be start at)
1 Battleship
1 Heavy Cruiser of 15.000tons 3x3 203mm and 9x 120mm Guns
Numerous Destroyers
constructive post from that forum:
" This 150 000 tons fleet is not the coincident. It has roots in Geneva Conference where Poland stated programme for such a large navy. It was purely of political reasons and everybody was aware that this was just propaganda and had nothing to do with real programme. In fact before Geneva Conference Polish Navy prepared 6 versions of the programme ranging from the most realistic ones to the totally s-f. The so called A programme stands for 18 500 t fleet, B for 25 000 t, C for 70 500 t (1 BB, 2 CA), D for 100 000 t (2 BB, 2 CA), E for 150 000 t (3 BB, 6 CA) and F for fantastic 210 000 t (4 BB, 8 CA). It was proposed to present in Geneva one of the versions D, E, F as 'official plans' and to show Polish ambitions for big navy. Later it was decided to show E as official plan. In fact the real plan was B which was later executed as 6-year programme (1936/42: 6 DD, 12 SS, 1 CM, 12 PM, 12 MTB). "
Hope it helps.
