What is Polish Navy?
The '''Polish Navy''' is the naval branch of the Polish [[Military|Armed Forces]]. The Polish Navy has 46 ships and about 12,000 people. In the fifteenth century there was a small force of ships that primarily operated on rivers and lakes. In 1454, the city of [[Gdańsk]] was back in Poland after being previously occupied by the [[Teutonic Knights]] since 1308. [[Gdańsk]] is a seaport so Poland could have a large fleet on the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]]. In 1561, following a victory over a Russian fleet in the Baltic, the Polish Navy got a second port at [[Riga]], in modern-day [[Latvia]]. The Polish navy won the Battle of Oliwa in 1627 against the [[Swedish Empire]], during the [[Polish–Swedish War]]. The [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] never really had a strong navy. [[Józef Piłsudski]], commander of the Armed Forces of Poland, founded the modern Polish Navy in 1918. In [[World War II]] three ships sailed to the [[British]] naval base at [[Leith]] in [[Scotland]] in 1939 to escape from the [[Germany|German]] navy. The British lent them more ships. During the [[Communist state|Communist]] period, Poland's navy got much stronger. A separate force of Polish Marines started. The Navy also got [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-made ships, including 2 [[Destroyer|destroyers]], 2 missile destroyers, 13 [[Submarine|submarines]] and 17 [[missile]] boats to control the [[Baltic Sea]].<ref> [[Michael Alfred Peszke|Peszke, Michael Alfred]], ''Poland's Navy: 1918–1945'', New York, Hippocrene Books, 1999, {{ISBN|0-7818-0672-0}}</ref> Poland joined [[NATO]] in 1999 and this changed the work of the navy. ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Organizations based in Poland]] [[Category:Navies]] [[Category:Military of Poland]]