Evo i jedan interesantan prilog:
http://ww2.debello.ca/polish/baltic/wicher/index.htmlMeanwhile fast progress in the class of fast torpedo carriers caused that the destroyers designed in the beginning of 1920's, which were supposed to become "superdestroyers", in ten years (it means before the two Polish destroyers were finished), occurred quite ordinary ships. Having that in mind the Yugoslavs chose another way: they decided to create a "demolisher", which would superseed in power any of the existing destroyers of that time. Artillery for those ships had to come from Czechoslovakia, which was an important political ally of Belgrade. Besides the Škoda works were an old partner of the Austro-Hungarian navy - the ancestor of the Yugoslav one.
Several British and French companies took part in the tender to develop the Yugoslav destroyers; later the choice was narrowed to the British Yarrow Shipbuilding Ltd. and Samuel J. White & Co. and finally the Yugoslavs choose the former. In August 1929 there was signed the contract to build the destroyer named Dubrovnik. This way was created a new tradition in the Yugoslav navy to name destroyers after major cities; before such names were given to the ships no smaller than cruisers.
The most remarkable feature of Dubrovnik was her main artillery - she became the first, and the last, destroyer armed with Škoda's 140mm guns with 56-calibres-long barrels, capable of throwing the 39.9kg projectiles at the 23.4km distance. For a decade Dubrovnik's supremacy in artillery was unchallenged in her class - until there were built the first German Zerstörers armed with 150mm canons. For this, as well as for her status of the flagship of the Yugoslav navy, Dubrovnik has been often classified as a leader, although formally she always had remained a razarač, namely an ordinary destroyer.
As a whole, naval specialists had estimated Dubrovnik as a very fit ship. Apart from the powerful artillery, she also had a modern propulsion system; during the tests she achieved a 40.3-knot speed - 3.3 knots more than foreseen by the project specifications. Her range was also remarkable: 7000SM at the 15-knot cruising speed, possible thanks to the impressive volume of fuel tanks (590t), as well as a special novelty - low-revolution economic speed turbines. As far as the contemporary hi-tech devices are concerned, Dubrovnik was an exemplary ship in this respect, and also internationalist - her artillery, also the AA artillery, was Czechoslovak, range finders and systems of fire reconning were Dutch, propulsion, torpedo apparatuses and other mechanisms were British, and communication equipment was Belgian. It is also worth mentioning that the original project foresaw a hydroplane, but it was cancelled during construction.
For short, Dubrovnik had made quite an impression on the naval specialists of many countries, and so, when the Polish government decided to issue funds for two more destroyers for the Polish Navy, the project specifications were made with the parameters of the Yugoslav flagship in mind. And there was the Samuel J. White & Co. that proposed the Poles a ready-made project, earlier rejected by the Yugoslavs. After short negotiations there was signed a contract providing for building of two destroyers - Grom and Błyskawica (Thunder and Lightning); two more destroyers had to be built in the shipyards of Gdynia, but for financial reasons their building was delayed several times and eventually never came true.
