This is wrongly identified in our catalogue and in 'Gibbons' as ORP "Dragon". The British cruiser "Dragon" was transferred to the Polish Navy on 15.1.43.During the first 10 days of 'Normandy',she was in the forefront at Sword beach.
On 8.7.44, whilst off Caen, she was torpedoed by a German oneman submarine of the Neger type: becoming a 'constructive total loss' , she was sunk as part of the Mulberry harbour. She was replaced by HMS "Danae", which was renamed ORP "Conrad" on the 1.10.44.
On 7.5.45, ORP "Conrad" entered the port of Wilhelmshaven, the main port of the German Navy, as the first Allied ship. This was a great tribute to the Polish Navy by the British Admiralty. She was welcomed into the destroyed Naval base by the 1st Polish Tank Division, commanded by General Maczek who captured Wilhelmshaven from the landward side.
The stamp was issued in June 1945 to commemorate the first "Day of the Sea" after liberation, when ORP "Conrad" was the flagship of the Polish Navy in Great Britain. We hoped that she, together with the rest of our Navy (destroyers, submarines etc.), would come back to Poland and keep a 'sea watch' off our coast (the theme of the stamp).
But Yalta changed all that! I
On 28.9.46 ORP "Conrad" returned to the Royal Navy and was renamed HMS "Danae" once again. She was broken-up in 1948 at Barrow-in- Furness.
Article by Captain Miroslaw Proskurnicki. Log Book November 1996.
Poland SG526 (I do not have the stamp)
There is an article on HMS Dragon below.
http://www.shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=6013