She and sister ship ORP Błyskawica were to support the outdated French-built Wicher and Burza in the role of the core of the Polish Navy in a possible conflict.

As Poland had only one major seaport, the main task of the Polish naval forces was to secure supplies shipment to and from allied countries.

Because of that, the Grom class was designed to fulfill both the role of shore defence and convoy escort and was supposed to be stronger than single enemy destroyers.

The commanders of the ship were: On 30 August 1939, the Polish destroyers Błyskawica, Burza, and Grom were ordered to activate the Peking Plan, and the warships headed for Great Britain, from where they were to operate as convoy escorts.

[1] This hatred was founded on the fact that Grom took an intense interest in all hostile movements on shore and was reputed to spend hours lurking the coast in order to harass German forces.