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Battle Of Hel
The Battle of Hel (, literally "the Defense of Hel") was a World War II engagement fought from 1 September to 2 October 1939 on the Hel Peninsula, of the Baltic Sea coast, between invading German forces and defending Polish units during the German invasion of Poland (also known in Polish historiography as the September Campaign). The defense of the Hel Peninsula took place around the Hel Fortified Area, a system of Polish fortifications that had been constructed in the 1930s near the interwar border with the German Third Reich. Beginning on 20 September 1939, after the Polish Army Pomorze had been defeated in the Battle of Tuchola Forest and after other Polish coastal strongholds had capitulated in the Battle of Westerplatte, Battle of Gdynia and the Battle of Kępa Oksywska, Hel was the only substantial pocket of Polish military resistance left in northern Poland. It was also the site of the invasion's only naval surface engagement. The Germans blockaded the defenders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chałupy
Chałupy (, ) is a seaside resort and a Polish village with conditions favorable for windsurfing and kitesurfing, in Gmina Władysławowo. It is situated between Władysławowo and Kuźnica on the Hel Peninsula on the southern Baltic Sea in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland. Its population in 2009 was 376. In 1836 the village was the site of one of the last, if not the last, lynchings related to accusations of sorcery, when a widow Krystyna Ceynowa was killed by a mob after being accused of being a witch. In 1939 the village saw some fighting during the battle of Hel. The Germans captured it on 25 September, and around the same time, in its vicinity, Polish military engineers detonated torpedo warheads, temporarily transforming the Peninsula's far end into an island. Before 1 January 2015, Chałupy was part of the town of Władysławowo. Toward the last years of communist rule in Poland the locality became famous as the site of a government-legal nudist bea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fortification
A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ("strong") and ("to make"). From very early history to modern times, defensive walls have often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion and conquest. Some settlements in the Indus Valley Civilization were the first small cities to be fortified. In ancient Greece, large cyclopean stone walls fitted without mortar had been built in Mycenaean Greece, such as the ancient site of Mycenae. A Greek ''Towns of ancient Greece#Military settlements, phrourion'' was a fortified collection of buildings used as a military garrison, and is the equivalent of the ancient Roman, Roman castellum or fortress. These constructions mainly served the purpose of a watch tower, to guard certain roads, passes, and borders. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coastal Artillery Division (Poland)
The Coastal Artillery Division (Polish: Dywizjon Artylerii Nadbrzeżnej) - a coastal artillery unit of the Polish Army in the Second Polish Republic stationed in the Hel Fortified Area. The division fought in defend Hel in 1939 during the Third Reich's invasion of Poland. Formation and organizational changes Since 1933, there were plans to expand the previously existing coastal artillery company, which gathered the previously existing coastal artillery platoons. Due to the above, in the spring of 1935, the company was transformed into a cadre battery, to which the coastal artillery unit formed in Oksywie was incorporated to staff the future artillery battery No. 31. On June 25, 1935, by order of the Minister of Military Affairs L.dz.2621/Tj.org., the Coastal Artillery Division (DAN) was created. The organizational structure of the division was as follows: * Division command (8 officers, 80 NCOs and privates, and 2 civilian employees), * Artillery battery no. 1 (newly formed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anti-aircraft Warfare
Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface (Submarine#Armament, submarine-launched), and air-based weapon systems, in addition to associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements, and passive measures (e.g. barrage balloons). It may be used to protect naval, army, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries, the main effort has tended to be homeland defense. Missile defense, Missile defense is an extension of air defence, as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight. Most modern anti-aircraft (AA) weapons systems are optimized for short-, medium-, or long-range air defence, although some systems may incorporate multiple weapons (such as both autocannons and surface-to-air missiles). 'Layered air defence' usually refers to multiple 't ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hel, Poland
Hel (; ) is a seaside resort city in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland, located on the tip of the Hel Peninsula, some from the Polish mainland. History Early developments The territory became part of the emerging Polish state in the 10th century, under its first historic ruler Mieszko I. The Kashubian village of Hel was first mentioned in 1198 as a centre of herring trade area named ''Gellen''. In one of the Danish chronicles of 1219 it is mentioned that a damaged ship of King Valdemar II the Victorious was set ashore on an "Island of Hel". By the 13th century the village became one of the most important trade centres of the area, competing with the nearby city of Gdańsk. It was then that the village was granted town rights by Duke Świętopełk II the Great of Pomerania. The privileges were again confirmed in 1378 when the town came under the rule of the Teutonic Order. Initially the town was some from its present-day centre. It contained a churc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Land Coastal Defence
Land Coastal Defence (or Land Coastal Command, , abbr. LOW), commanded by Colonel Stanisław Dąbek (land forces), was an important unit tasked with the defence of Poland's Baltic Sea coast during the 1939 invasion. Before the war LOW was at first subordinate to the Toruń-based military area command led by General Władysław Bortnowski (Armia Pomorze), but was later reassigned from Armia Pomorze to the Polish Navy, and received orders directly from Counter-Admiral Józef Unrug. Its first commander was Col. Józef Sass-Hoszowski and, after July 23, 1939, Col. Stanisław Dąbek. It was part of the Coastal Defence Group (''Grupa Obrony Wybrzeża''), tasked with organizing the defence of the Polish seashore, as well as the borders with Nazi Germany and Danzig, and the preparation of the defence of the Polish naval bases and mobilization centres (Gdynia, Oksywie, Hel, Westerplatte). LOW was to defend Gdynia and Oksywie; Hel and Westerplatte had their own dedicated formations under ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counter Admiral
Counter admiral is a military rank used for high-ranking officers in several navies around the world, though the rank is not used in the English-speaking world, where its equivalent rank is rear admiral. The term derives from the French . Depending on the country, it is either a one-star or two-star rank. In modern navies that use it, counter admiral is generally, although not always, the lowest flag officer rank. In the German Navy, for instance, ranks below ; in the Royal Canadian Navy, (rear admiral in English) ranks above . French speaking countries In France and other French speaking countries' navies the rank of is used as the lowest flag officer. It is usually placed above ship-of-the-line captain () and below vice admiral (). Germany is a NATO OF-7 (two-star rank) of the (German Navy), equivalent to the ("major general") in the German Army and the German Air Force. Nordic countries The rank of counter admiral is used in all the Nordic countries. Denmark and No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Kępa Oksywska
The Battle of Kępa Oksywska took place in the Oksywie Heights outside the Polish city of Gdynia between 10 and 19 September 1939. The battle, fought by the Polish Army and the German Wehrmacht, was part of the Polish September Campaign during World War II. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the campaign, with Polish KIA losses reaching roughly 14% of all the forces engaged. The battle German advance on Gdynia On 10 September, after a series of skirmishes in the vicinity of Reda at the western outskirts of Gdynia, the Polish commander of the Land Coastal Defence forces, pułkownik Stanisław Dąbek, was in a difficult position. His forces, centred on the port of Gdynia, were forced to wage a two-front war against the German forces advancing both from the west and from the territory of the Free City of Danzig. The main part of his forces was facing the German forces under General der Flieger Leonhard Kaupisch, advancing from the east along the shores of the Gdańsk ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Gdynia
Battle of Gdynia was one of the major battles in northern Poland during the Invasion of Poland of 1939. The Germans' main push towards Gdynia began on 1 September and they captured Gdynia two weeks later on 14 September. After the fall of Gdynia, the warfare continued on the plateau called Kępa Oksywska. Before the battle Gdynia is a major civilian and military port on the Baltic Sea, and was an important industrial centre of the Second Polish Republic. Its defence was one of the key elements in the Polish defence plan. One of the Polish armies, Armia Pomorze, had orders to prevent German forces from breaking through the Polish Corridor that linked most of Germany with East Prussia and to defend Gdynia, Hel, Kępa Oksywska and Oksywie. The forces defending Gdynia were grouped under the Land Coastal Defence (''Lądowa Obrona Wybrzeża''), commanded by Colonel Stanisław Dąbek and Naval Coastal Defence (''Morska Obrona Wybrzeża'') Captain Stanisław Frankowski. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Westerplatte
The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). A small forested island separated from Gdansk by the harbour channel, Westerplatte was established as a Polish military outpost during the interwar period. In the mid-1920s, the Second Polish Republic established the Polish Military Transit Depot (, WST) on the Westerplatte peninsula in the Free City of Danzig. Beginning on 1 September 1939, the German ''Wehrmacht'' and Danzig Police assaulted the WST. Despite initial assessment on both sides that the Polish garrison might hold out for several hours before being reinforced or overwhelmed, the Poles held out for seven days and repelled thirteen assaults that included dive-bomber attacks and naval shelling. The defence of the Westerplatte was an inspiration for the Polish Army and people in the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Capitulation (surrender)
Capitulation (, a little head or division; ''capitulare'', to treat upon terms) is an agreement in time of war for the surrender (military), surrender to a hostile armed force of a particular body of troops, a town or a territory. It is an ordinary incident of war, and therefore no previous instructions from the captors' government are required before finally settling the conditions of capitulation. The most usual of such conditions are freedom of religion and security of private property on one hand, and a promise not to bear arms within a certain period on the other. Such agreements may be rashly concluded with an inferior officer, on whose authority the enemy are not, in the actual position of the war, entitled to place reliance. When an agreement is made by an officer who has not the proper authority or who has exceeded the limits of his authority, it is termed a "sponsion", and, to be binding, must be confirmed by express or tacit ratification. Article 35 of the Hague ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Tuchola Forest
The Battle of Tuchola Forest (, ) was one of the battle of the Border, first battles of World War II, during the invasion of Poland. The battle occurred from 1 September to 5 September 1939 and resulted in a major Germany, German victory. Poor Poland, Polish command and control, as well as German numerical and tactical superiority, allowed the Germans to manage to cripple Poland's Armia Pomorze (Army Pomerania) and, by breaking through the Polish Corridor, to connect mainland Germany with East Prussia.Christer Jörgensen, Chris Mann, ''Strategy and Tactics: Tank Warfare'', Zenith Imprint, 2001, , p. 35/ref> The battle was fought against the judgment of General Władysław Bortnowski, the commander of Army Pomerania, who believed the Corridor to be a very poor defensive position and had repeatedly asked for permission to withdraw his forces from it. Prelude Tuchola Forest (, ) in Westprussia, since 1920 Treaty of Versailles in the Polish Corridor, is a large area of mostly f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
