The Westerplatte peninsula in Gdansk, Poland was the site of the first battle of World War 2. On September 1, 1939, German battleships opened fire on the small Polish military depot at Westerplatte, marking the start of Germany's invasion of Poland. The 182 Polish defenders held out for over a week against thousands of German soldiers and air attacks. Though eventually forced to surrender, the Polish resistance impressed the Germans. Westerplatte is now an open-air museum commemorating the first battle, with ruined buildings and information boards explaining the events that unfolded there.

1. November 2015
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N
udging its way into the
Baltic Sea opposite the
modern harbour of Gdan´sk
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
fired on the small Polish armaments
depot at Westerplatte, the first shots
of war, precipitating the conflagration
many had expected. This was fol-
lowed by a wholescale invasion
of Poland by German and Soviet
forces, and in five 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 Gdan´sk.
Buildings damaged in the attack
have been left 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.
After the First World War, Gdan´sk
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 difficul-
ties with the rise of Hitler and the
Nazis in the early 1930s – Gdan´sk
effectively 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 Gdan´sk as a trans-shipment
area. On 22 June 1921, the League
finally 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 Affairs 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
fortification was forbidden, and the
maximum size of the depot garrison
was set at 88 personnel.
In 1927 began the first 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 Gdan´sk, 81-83 Długa Street
+48 58 323 75 20 www.muzeum1939.pl
Open to visitors all year; there is a charge for the museum,
New Port Lighthouse and Post Office Museum Gdan´sk
FREE
ENTRY
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in the 1930s and the proximity of
the Nazified 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 fire for machine-guns.
Additionally, by September 1939 the
garrison had been secretly increased
to 176 men and six officers.
THE BATTLE OF
WESTERPLATTE
On 25 August 1939, the German
training battleship Schleswig-Holstein
entered Gdan´sk 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-aircraft
gunners, but, more significantly,
hidden below were a company of
225 Stormtroopers. The ship was
armed with four 280mm cannon, ten
medium-sized 150mm cannon, and
four anti-aircraft 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
fire 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 first shots of
World War II had rung out across the
narrow waterway; there had been no
warning. As German assault troops
pressed forward, Staff Sergeant
Wojciech Najsarek fell under a hail
of machine-gun bullets, becoming
perhaps the first combat victim of
the entire war. The initial assault was
thwarted by sustained Polish heavy
and light machine-gun fire, 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 field artillery fire. 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
GDAŃSK
POLAND
PICTURED ON BOTH PAGES:
1. The former guardhouse now houses
the museum of the Westerplatte
memorial on the peninsula of the
same name in Gdan´sk, Poland.
2. This Nazi propaganda photograph
shows the raising of the German flag
on the Westerplatte. The original
caption reads: ‘The capture of the
Westerplatte. The German war flag
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 fire. A direct hit demol-
ished Guardhouse Five, with only two
defenders surviving, and the barracks
building suffered 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 effect was
psychological, and there is every
indication that, had the Germans
launched a ground offensive soon
afterwards, 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 Da˛browski; the
garrison decided to fight on.
German attempts to destroy the
depot continued with further shelling
from two torpedo boats in the Bay
of Gdan´sk on 4 September. On the
night of 5/6 September, the attackers
tried to set fire to the Westerplatte
forest, but the smoke only served to
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camouflage Polish positions, giving
them a perfect field of fire. The depot
came under sustained fire 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 left
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 influence 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 Gdan´sk.
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 Office Museum in Gdan´sk
(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 Gdan´sk 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 first battle of
World War II.
8. A distinctive sign marking the
Westerplatte memorial.
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