Gdańsk
Tier X · Destroyer · Europe
Rating S- (Near elite within its tier and class · overall score 80) · Gunboat destroyer
A Pan-European gunboat destroyer that uses both smoke and radar. Its eight 139 mm guns deal a 3,584 HE salvo, 39% above average, and 50,009 DPM, 21% above, quickly melting enemy destroyers and setting large ships ablaze. Two charges of Radar I (7.2 km) pull destroyers out of smoke, and 3 smoke charges let it hide, making it easy to seize the initiative in destroyer fights. A 40.3 kn top speed and 4 charges of Engine Boost II make repositioning fast, but its 5.94 s rudder shift is sluggish and 7.38 km detectability makes it easy to spot first. Its 9.42 km range is short for its size, so watch out for long-range cruiser harassment.
Key stats
- HP: 22,022
- Top speed: 40.31 kn
- Surface detectability: 7.38 km
- Main battery: 139 mm 4X2 · reload 4.3 s · range 9.42 km
Based on the notion of Polish ships achieving superiority over their enemy counterparts through quality rather than quantity, Poland designed the "crusader" ship class—large destroyers that would be capable of taking on even light cruisers. In the late 1930s, several projects for such ships were being considered in the Polish port city of Gdynia. The Mogador-class destroyers were suitable for the purpose as they were comparable to light cruisers in certain parameters and outmatched them in others (for example, in speed). Had ships of this class been built in France, the destroyers that survived the war would have been reequipped in the 1950s and 1960s with Soviet air defense systems, radars, and torpedoes.