Westerplatte (, , ) is a

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, located on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

coast mouth of the Dead Vistula (one of the

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

delta

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

), in the Gdańsk harbour channel. From 1926 to 1939, it was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot (WST), sanctioned within the territory of the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

(now Gdańsk). It is famous for the Battle of Westerplatte, which was the first clash between Polish and German forces during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

and thus the beginning and the first battle of World War II.

History

Resort

The resort was established on the Westerplatte peninsula around 1830 which had a beach, a forested park, a seaside bath complex and health spa facilities.

Transit depot

Following the reestablishment of Polish independence in the

aftermath of World War I The aftermath of World War I saw far-reaching and wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were a ...

, much of the surrounding region became a part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. The city of Danzig (present day

), a historically important port city, at that time predominantly ethnically German, became an independent city state, the

. The Free City was nominally run by the

League of Nations The League of Nations (LN or LoN; , SdN) was the first worldwide intergovernmental organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. It was founded on 10 January 1920 by the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), Paris Peace ...

, but over time became increasingly allied with Germany. In 1921, the

granted Poland the right to install an ammunition depot near Gdańsk, and station a garrison there. Despite some objections from the Free City, this right was confirmed in 1925, where the location was agreed on with the choice of Westerplatte. Westerplatte was primarily separated from the New Port of the

by the harbour channel, with only a small

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

connecting them to the mainland; the Polish-held part of the Westerplatte was separated from the territory of Danzig by a brick wall. The depot was completed in November 1925 and became operational in January 1926. The Polish garrison's size was set at 88 soldiers, and Poland was not allowed to construct fortifications. On 6 March 1933, in what became known as the westernmost incident (or crisis), the Polish government landed a marine battalion, briefly strengthening the outpost to about 200 men. This was done to demonstrate the Polish resolve to defend the outpost in response to recent comments by German politicians and media figures about the need of border adjustment and Poland and France were secretly discussing preventive war against Germany; on a local level this was also done to put pressure on the Danzig government which was trying to renounce prior agreement on shared Danzig-Polish control over harbor police and take sole control of that unit. Polish troops were withdrawn by 16 March, after protests from the League, Danzig and Germany, in exchange for Danzig withdrawing its objections to the harbor police agreement. According to another source, on 14 March 1933 the League did authorize Poland to strengthen the garrison. Over the years, the Poles also constructed clandestine

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 Lati ...

s. These were not very impressive: there were no real

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

s or tunnels, but only five small concrete outposts (guardhouses) hidden in the peninsula's forest and a large

barracks Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks ar ...

prepared for defence, supported by a network of field fortifications such as

trench A trench is a type of digging, excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide (as opposed to a swale (landform), swale or a bar ditch), and narrow compared with its length (as opposed to a simple hole or trapping ...

es and

barricade Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denotes ...

s.(English) Janusz Marszalec, ''Westerplatte,'' p. 4
/ref> Several of the buildings were reinforced with concrete. With tensions rising, in early 1939, the garrison was placed on alert.

Battle of Westerplatte

On 1 September 1939, only minutes after the German Luftwaffe (air force) had begun the

by dropping bombs in a series of raids on the city of Wieluń by Junkers Ju 87 Stukas, at 04:48planned on 4:45, delayed by 3 minutes. local time, the battleship ''

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; ; ; ; ; occasionally in English ''Sleswick-Holsatia'') is the Northern Germany, northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical Duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of S ...

'', then on a courtesy visit to the Free City of Danzig, without warning opened fire on the Polish garrison. This was followed by an attack by ''Oblt.'' Wilhelm Henningsen’s storm unit from the Schleswig-Holstein and the '' Marinestosstruppkompanie''. Soon after crossing the artillery-breached brick wall, the attackers were ambushed by the Polish defenders, with small arms, mortar and machine-gun fire from concealed and well-positioned firing points that caught them in a crossfire. Another two assaults that day were repelled as well, with the Germans suffering unexpectedly high losses. Over the coming days, the Germans repeatedly bombarded Westerplatte with naval artillery and heavy

field artillery Field artillery is a category of mobile artillery used to support army, armies in the field. These weapons are specialized for mobility, tactical proficiency, short range, long range, and extremely long range target engagement. Until the ear ...

along with dive-bombing raids by Stukas. Repeated attacks by 570 German soldiers were repelled by the 180 Polish soldiers for seven days. Major Henryk Sucharski had been informed that no help from the Polish Army would come. Cut off, with no reinforcements or chance of resupply, he continued his defence, keeping the main German force stalled at Westerplatte and so preventing further attacks along the Polish coast. On 7 September, the Major decided to surrender, due to lack of ammunition and supplies. As a sign of honour for the soldiers of Westerplatte, the German commander, Gen. Eberhardt, allowed Major Sucharski to keep his sword while being taken prisoner.

Post-war

The ruins of the defenders' barracks and guardhouses are still there. After the war, one of the guardhouses (#1) was converted into a museum. Two 280mm shells from the ''Schleswig-Holstein'' prop up its entrance. A Monument of the Coast Defenders (''Pomnik Obrońców Wybrzeża'') was unveiled in 1966. Westerplatte Museum dedicated to the 1939 battle was created in 2015. File:Westerplatte_Graves1.JPG, Memorials to fallen soldiers. File:Westerplatte barrack.jpg, Barrack ruins at Westerplatte. File:00565 Westerplatte barrakcks basement.jpg, Basement of ruined barrack File:Westerplatte_monument.jpg, Monument seen from the mainland File:Westerplatte Nigdy Wiecej Wojny.jpg, War: Never Again (''Nigdy więcej wojny'') File:79th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II (3).jpg, An honour guard at Westerplatte in 2018.

References

External links

A Song of the Soldiers of Westerplatte

westerplatte.pl/
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090617044648/http://www.sww.w.szu.pl/artykuly/obroncy_westerplatte.doc Huge article about battle of Westerplattebr>Location in OpenStreetMap
{{Authority control Geography of Gdańsk Landmarks in Poland Peninsulas of Poland Tourist attractions in Gdańsk Former exclaves

History

Resort

Transit depot

Battle of Westerplatte

Post-war

See also

Further reading

Sources and documents

Guidebooks

Fiction

Other

References

External links