Allied Heroes Collection
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World War II was a dire test for humanity as battles raged around the globe—from the tropics to the polar icebergs, from rocky fjords to the vast expanse of the ocean. The rapid technological advances made during the six years of the war completely changed the face of the conflict, resulting in irreversible changes to ship tactics and their role in combat. These challenges placed a heavy burden on warship commanders and crews, requiring them to rise to the tasks at hand in ever-evolving ways. Courage, professionalism, and devotion to duty have forever secured a place for heroes in naval history. |
The Allied Heroes Collection comprises five sub-collections of two items each. The exchange rate for duplicates is 1:1.
Sub-Collections
U.S.S.R
Gremyashchy, a Project 7 destroyer, was laid down at Zhdanov Shipyard in Leningrad in July 1936, launched in August 1937, and commissioned in August 1939. The same year, in September, the ship was transferred to the north along the White Sea-Baltic Canal.
Gremyashchy served extensively during World War II. As part of the Northern Fleet, she was tasked with performing patrol duties, escorting Arctic convoys, hunting down submarines, and carrying out raids. On March 1, 1943, in recognition of her service to her country, Gremyashchy was made an elite Soviet Guards destroyer. Over the course of the war, the destroyer completed as many as 90 combat missions.
From 1954, Gremyashchy served as part of the Belomor flotilla. In 1957, the destroyer was renamed OS-5 and selected to be part of a nuclear test at Novaya Zemlya, where she sustained extensive damage. The ship's hull has remained on the test site ever since.
Gurin, Anton Iosifovich (1910–1962) was a Soviet Navy rear admiral. He joined the Navy in 1928. After graduating from the Naval Academy, he served on submarines for several years. In 1938, he was given command of destroyer Gremyashchy. A year later, he and his ship were reassigned from the Black Sea to the North Sea.
Over the course of World War II, Anton Gurin served within the Northern Fleet, which acquired special strategic importance with the launch of the Arctic convoys. Starting as Gremyashchy's commander and later becoming commander of the First Destroyer Division, he conducted more than 100 combat missions, raided enemy communication lines, and provided artillery fire support for Soviet Army operations. Anton Gurin participated in escorting several dozen Allied convoys and stood up to countless attacks from German aviation and submarines—acts of bravery that brought him the American Navy Cross.
In July 1945, he was awarded the "Hero of the Soviet Union" title for his legendary deeds in action.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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Andrey Goryachev | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier I  Orlan
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U.K.
The J-class ships spearheaded a new generation of British destroyers. Their larger size enabled them to carry powerful artillery housed in new twin-gun mounts.
Jervis set a unique record among Royal Navy warships. Despite her active involvement in hostilities over a period of five and a half years and engagement in thirteen major combat operations, not a single member of her crew was lost as a result of hostile action.
Philip Vian (1894–1968), admiral of the Royal Navy fleet and one of the most prominent and daring British naval commanders. World War I caught him as a young naval officer. After the war, he served on a whole range of warships and became a gunnery expert. With the outbreak of World War II, he was given command of a destroyer flotilla.
Philip Vian's finest hour came in February 1940 when, at the helm of destroyer Cossack, he attacked German supply ship Altmark that was taking shelter in Norwegian waters. He freed 300 British merchant seamen from Altmark's hold. Aside from that, Vian's flotilla took an active role in the pursuit of legendary German battleship Bismarck in May 1941. Even at that time, nothing could stop the future admiral—a man of great tactical wit and daring professional ability—from pursuing his duty. Throughout the war, Vian stood in command of cruiser and aircraft carrier squadrons, confronting Germans in the Arctic and Italians in the Mediterranean and suppressing German positions in Normandy and Japanese forces on the Pacific islands.
After the war, in 1948, as Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, Vian hoisted his flag on renowned battleship Vanguard.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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Peter Vance | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier I Black Swan
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Canada
With the outbreak of World War II, the Canadian Navy promptly moved ahead on working out the requirements for a cutting-edge destroyer intended to replace the obsolete ships built during World War I and the interwar period. Prolonged discussions ended in a decision to build several destroyers under a British project of the Tribal class. The first four Canadian ships of this class were built in Great Britain at the Vickers-Armstrongs shipyard in Newcastle between 1940 and 1943, with four more built in Halifax, Canada, between 1942 and 1948. HMCS Haida belonged to the first batch.
During World War II, the destroyer was engaged in escorting Arctic convoys, SAS operations off the French coast, and the Normandy landings. For her exemplary valor in combat and the impressive enemy surface tonnage she sank, Haida is commonly referred to as the "Fightingest Ship in the Royal Canadian Navy."
In 1949, the destroyer was put into reserve, only to be recalled again as the Korean War broke out. She participated in patrolling operations and escorted aircraft carriers during the conflict. Between 1958 and 1963, Haida was under repair; in April 1963, she was put into reserve; between 1964 and 1965, she was converted into a museum ship berthed in Hamilton, Ontario.
Leonard Warren Murray (1896–1971) was a rear admiral of the Royal Canadian Navy who played a central role in the Battle of the Atlantic. He was the only Canadian to command an Allied theater of operations during World War II.
Murray was in the inaugural cohort of 21 recruits at the Royal Naval College of Canada at Halifax, which had only recently been established under the Naval Service Act of May 1910. Throughout World War I, he served on various Canadian and British ships; he saw the end of the war in the North Sea on board battleship HMS Agincourt.
In the interwar period, while studying at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich, Leonard Murray broke new ground by planning to use large convoys. At the outbreak of World War II, he was involved in escorting convoys and received two promotions for his deeds: He was put in charge of the Newfoundland Escort Force and later appointed to the position of commanding officer of the Atlantic Coast.
As a result of the Atlantic Convoy Conference of 1943, it was agreed that the U.S. Navy would concentrate on the South Atlantic, leaving Canada and the U.K. to cover the North Atlantic. Murray was made Commander-in-Chief of the Canadian Northwest Atlantic. He commanded all Allied air and naval forces involved in convoy protection between Canada and the coast of Ireland until the end of the war in Europe in 1945.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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Lionel H. Morrow | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier VI  Perth
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Poland
Błyskawica was the second of two Grom-class destroyers laid down at the J. Samuel White shipyard in September 1935. The ship was launched in October 1936 and entered service in 1937. Per the Peking Plan, Błyskawica and her sister ship broke through to Great Britain in September 1939 for a minor upgrade that would prepare them for operations in the North Atlantic.
In May 1940, Błyskawica took part in the Norwegian Campaign; she was also involved in the successful evacuation of British forces from Dunkirk. During the rest of the war, Błyskawica carried out convoy and patrol duties in the Atlantic, escorting military transport ships. On June 9, 1944, she took part in the Battle of Ushant against Kriegsmarine destroyers that were attempting to disrupt the Allied landings in Normandy. In the spring of 1947, Błyskawica was transferred to the new Polish government, and the destroyer made its way back to Poland.
Between 1951 and 1952, Błyskawica was modernized—the ship's main guns and AA guns were replaced by Soviet-made armaments. During the 1960s, the destroyer made a number of courtesy visits to foreign ports and participated in exercises. In 1969, she was reclassified as an anti-aircraft defense ship. In May 1976, Błyskawica became a museum ship, part of the Naval Museum in Gdynia.
Tadeusz Gorazdowski (1907–1968) was a lieutenant-commander of the Polish Navy. His subordinates valued him for being a charismatic and fair leader.
After graduating from the Naval Academy, he was sent for an internship in France, where he received additional education and served on cruiser Edgar Quinet, battleship Bretagne, and destroyer Simoun. Later, he visited France again to take part in the transfer of French-built destroyer Burza to Poland. Shortly before the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Gorazdowski headed for the U.K. as part of the crew of destroyer Błyskawica. During World War II, he was in command of four Polish destroyers.
None of the ships under his command were lost during the war, nor were any of the souls serving on them, even though his ships served extensively in hostilities, particularly off the coast of France in 1945.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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Eugeniusz Grudziński | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier I Gryf
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France
The lead ship in a series of six large and high-speed destroyers of their class, built for the French Navy in the 1930s. They carried a main battery that consisted of new 139 mm guns with improved shell ballistics and an extended firing range.
After the declaration of war in 1939, all destroyers of this class became part of the raider forces that were tasked with hunting down German blockade runners and raiders. Le Fantasque, along with her two sister ships, was based in Dakar. Their mission was to patrol the waters of the Central Atlantic. By the end of 1939, they had returned to France, and they were transferred to Algeria in April 1940.
After the defeat of France, the ship participated in the Battle of Dakar. Le Fantasque was still in Dakar when French West Africa joined Free France in 1942. The ship underwent an upgrade in the U.S. in 1943 and returned to the Mediterranean to hunt down Axis transport ships. Between raids, Le Fantasque provided fire support for the French landings on Corsica and participated in the liberation of Southern France in 1944.
Robert Jaujard (1896–1977) was a squadron vice admiral of the French Navy. He joined the Navy when he was 18, in the heat of World War I. He saw combat in the Mediterranean. Jaujard spent the next two decades of his career on various warships, ranging from small dispatch boats to destroyers to battleships, including the newly built Dunkerque. "Onshore assignments" were very rare in his career at the time.
Robert Jaujard met the beginning of World War II as commander of destroyer Vauquelin. He spent several months on that ship, guarding Allied convoys in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. In June 1940, at the helm of cruiser Algérie, he took part in attacks on Genoa after Italy had joined the war. In April 1943, when Jaujard was commander of Georges Leygues, a La Galissonnière-class light cruiser, he caught up with and sank a German transport blockade runner in the Central Atlantic. In 1944, Jaujard took charge of a cruiser squadron and made a mark by engaging in the Normandy landings and the liberation of Provence. The highly accurate fire of the French ships and their admiral's composure was admired by the Allied High Command. When the war was over, Robert Jaujard was placed in charge of the French Republic's major naval task force.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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René Jobert | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier I Bougainville
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U.S.A.
An Allen M. Sumner-class U.S. destroyer that belonged to a series of warships constructed during World War II. These ships carried excellent dual-purpose guns housed in twin-gun turret mounts, as well as AA guns.
During one of the battles in the Pacific, this destroyer successfully withstood four air bomb hits and six of the most unrelenting kamikaze air attacks. The ship stayed afloat owing to the skillful and selfless actions of her crew. Laffey is currently serving as a museum ship in Charleston, South Carolina.
Henry Kent Hewitt (1887–1972) was a U.S. Navy admiral. As a young officer, he participated in World War I, commanding a destroyer that escorted convoys in the Atlantic. After the war, he taught physics and electromechanics at the U.S. Naval Academy, studied at the U.S. Naval War College, and developed one of the variants of the logarithmic rule.
By the start of World War II, Hewitt had been promoted to rear admiral. During the war, he led all Allied amphibious operations in North Africa, Italy, and France—specifically, in northern Morocco, Salerno, and on the southern coast of France. Henry Hewitt was repeatedly awarded medals for his inspiring and skillful leadership, as well as his courage and ability to correctly assess the situation at war. He received a second Navy Cross and two "For Distinguished Service" medals from both the U.S. Army and the Navy.
After the war, he chaired a Pearl Harbor investigation and commanded U.S. Naval Forces Europe.Reward
Completing this sub-collection provides the following reward:
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Holden Kirby Bennett | Commander with 10 skill points, trained for Tier I Erie
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Overall Reward
Completing the entire collection provides the following reward:
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Warships Premium Account | 3 days |
