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Nudging its way into the Baltic Sea opposite the modern harbour of Gdansk in Poland, the Westerplatte

peninsula is a slender wooded sand spit only a few kilometres in length, and the site of one of the most momentous military events in 20th-century European history. On 31 August 1939, a faked attack on a Ger-man customs post and radio station near the Polish border at Gleiwitz gave the Nazis the excuse for war they sought: the next day German forces � red on the small Polish armaments depot at Westerplatte, the � rst shots of war, precipitating the con� agration many had expected. This was fol-lowed by a wholescale invasion of Poland by German and Soviet forces, and in � ve weeks the country had been defeated.

Westerplatte is now an open-air museum and memorial, and a fascinating place to visit just 7km from the historic centre of Gdansk. Buildings damaged in the attack have been le� in their ruined state, and a series of information boards provide a moving account of the events and the ground over which they unfolded.

FROM SPA TO MILITARY DEPOT The peninsula was originally a health resort and spa, which by the 1880s and 1890s had over 140,000 visitors annually. It served as a city beach for the large numbers of visitors from the Kingdom of Poland as well as the German Reich. But it had also been involved in earlier wars, and entrenchments from the time of

Frederick the Great and the Napole-onic era can still be seen.

A� er the First World War, Gdansk became the Free City of Danzig (its German name) under the protection of the League of Nations. The city comprised a majority German popu-lation, with Poles in the minority, and this was to create enormous di� cul-ties with the rise of Hitler and the Nazis in the early 1930s – Gdansk e� ectively became a German port. During the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), a neutral Germany forbade the movement of arms to Poland across her territory; this led to intense diplomatic gestures from Poland towards the League to allow her to use Gdansk as a trans-shipment area. On 22 June 1921, the League � nally recognised Poland’s right to use the port and to allocate a small military garrison to supervise arms movements; this was in the face of Free City opposition, and a dispute

over the precise location of the depot dragged on until the League ordered it should be located on the Wester-platte peninsula. In August 1924, the Polish Ministry of Military A� airs be-gan to build the depot, which required a new wet dock on the peninsula’s western side, as well as warehouses and barracks. On 31 October 1925, Poland obtained Westerplatte on a perpetual lease, although the site was technically within the territory of the Free City. The building of any kind of forti� cation was forbidden, and the maximum size of the depot garrison was set at 88 personnel.

In 1927 began the � rst of several ‘courtesy visits’ by German naval ves-sels to Danzig, which were received with rapturous enthusiasm by the city and its predominantly German popu-lation. These military demonstrations were to have tragic consequences for the depot in 1939. The growing men-ace of a rapidly militarising Germany

REVIEWING THE BEST MILITARY HISTORY EXHIBITIONS WITH STEPHEN MILES

VISIT

WESTERPLATTE: MUSEUM OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR

PL 80-831 Gdansk, 81-83 Długa Street+48 58 323 75 20 www.muzeum1939.plOpen to visitors all year; there is a charge for the museum, New Port Lighthouse and Post O� ce Museum Gdansk

FREEENTRY

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in the 1930s and the proximity of the Nazi� ed Free City prompted the Polish government to strengthen its presence at Westerplatte: between 1933 and 1936 guardhouses were clandestinely built at the depot to form a defensive ring against attack. The remains of some of these can still be seen. In the spring of 1939, as tension in Europe grew, the depot’s defences were further augmented with the installation of a new alarm system, total nocturnal black-outs, heavier armaments, trip wires, and the thinning out of the forest to provide a clearer line of � re for machine-guns. Additionally, by September 1939 the garrison had been secretly increased to 176 men and six o� cers.

THE BATTLE OFWESTERPLATTE On 25 August 1939, the German training battleship Schleswig-Holstein entered Gdansk harbour on the

pretext of a courtesy visit, but with much more sinister intensions. She had 596 men on board, as well as 175 cadets and 60 anti-aircra� gunners, but, more signi� cantly, hidden below were a company of 225 Stormtroopers. The ship was armed with four 280mm cannon, ten medium-sized 150mm cannon, and four anti-aircra� guns. She remained moored near the salt granaries directly opposite Westerplatte, and as her sojourn lengthened the Polish government became increasingly concerned about her intentions.

At 04:47 on Friday 1 September, guns from the battleship opened � re on the southern part of the depot in an enormous and sustained cannonade to prepare the ground for an amphibious assault by the Stormtroopers. The � rst shots of World War II had rung out across the narrow waterway; there had been no warning. As German assault troops

pressed forward, Sta� Sergeant Wojciech Najsarek fell under a hail of machine-gun bullets, becoming perhaps the � rst combat victim of the entire war. The initial assault was thwarted by sustained Polish heavy and light machine-gun � re, and the Stormtroopers eventually fell back leaving numerous dead and wounded. A further attack, just before 09:00, was also repulsed.

The Polish commander, Major Henryk Sucharski, realised that no help would come from the Polish Army, and that his small force would have to hold out alone. The battle was to last seven days, drawing in 3,500 German soldiers from the Free City area, as well as repeated naval and � eld artillery � re. In addition, late on the second day, some 60 Junkers Ju-87B dive-bombers attacked the depot. Its defences were repeat-edly hammered with 500kg, 250kg, and 50kg bombs, and strafed with

G D AŃS KP O L A N D

PICTURED ON BOTH PAGES:1. The former guardhouse now houses the museum of the Westerplatte memorial on the peninsula of the same name in Gdansk, Poland.

2. This Nazi propaganda photograph shows the raising of the German � ag on the Westerplatte. The original caption reads: ‘The capture of the Westerplatte. The German war � ag is raised on the Westerplatte. The bravery of the German troops forced the Polish garrison to give up despite persistant resistence.’

3. Inside the museum.

4. Inside the museum.

5. Ruined barracks, which were hit in the air raid on 2 September 1939.

machine-gun � re. A direct hit demol-ished Guardhouse Five, with only two defenders surviving, and the barracks building su� ered two direct hits, its special construction absorbing the impact, leaving all inside unharmed. The air raid killed ten defenders and wounded six; but its main e� ect was psychological, and there is every indication that, had the Germans launched a ground o� ensive soon a� erwards, the depot would have fallen. At this point, Sucharski decided to surrender the peninsula, but he was met with vociferous opposi-tion from his second-in-command, Captain Franciszek Dabrowski; the garrison decided to � ght on.

German attempts to destroy the depot continued with further shelling from two torpedo boats in the Bay of Gdansk on 4 September. On the night of 5/6 September, the attackers tried to set � re to the Westerplatte forest, but the smoke only served to

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camou� age Polish positions, giving them a perfect � eld of � re. The depot came under sustained � re again on 7 September from the Schleswig-Holstein, as well as artillery in the New Port. By this time, the defenders were in an impossible position – short of food, water, and medical supplies, and with two guardhouses knocked out and another two badly damaged. Considering the depot un-defendable, Sucharski decided to sur-render. The defence had impressed the Germans so much that he was initially allowed to keep his ceremo-nial sabre in captivity. The battle le� 15 Polish dead and 26 wounded; Ger-man losses are thought to have been 50 dead and 121 wounded.

AN OPEN-AIR MUSEUM Like many Second World War sites in what was to become the Soviet sphere

of in� uence in the post-war era, Westerplatte fell victim to a distorted view of history. The Communists saw September 1939 as a failure of the Polish government at the time, and the only tribute to the defenders of the depot was a simple cross erected in 1946. This was replaced by a Soviet tank in 1962 (it was removed in 2007). In 1966, the huge Monument to the Defenders of the Coast was un-veiled, and by the 1970s Westerplatte had become a key symbol of Polish wartime resistance. Since the 1980s, it has been managed by the Historical Museum of Gdansk.

The most interesting feature of the site is the walking trail, which takes in the main places involved in the battle, following a series of informa-tion boards in English. A tiny three-room museum in Guardhouse 1 is open in season; it contains arma-

ments, uniforms, photographs, and radio equipment. But the most dramatic legacy of the battle is the shattered remains of the barracks destroyed in the air raid. The ordeal of those who hid in its basement as the bombs fell can only be imagined.

Westerplatte is open at all times, and admission is free apart from the museum, which has a small charge. The site can be visited in tandem with the New Port Lighthouse (open in season; entry charge) across the channel (some accounts claim the opening salvo came from German troops positioned here) and the Post O� ce Museum in Gdansk (entry charge), which is also a memorial to its defenders, who held out against German attacks on 1 September 1939. A new Museum of the Second World War is due to open in Gdansk soon. •

PICTURED ON THIS PAGE:6. Information boards in English, explaining the events of September 1939, are positioned on a walking trail.

7. The Westerplatte Monument,in memory of the the Polish defenders of the site of the � rst battle of World War II.

8. A distinctive sign marking the Westerplatte memorial.

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