"Do not count on descendants. Ancestors also counted on us."
Defense of Westerplatte
On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. By this time, Germany had already annexed Austria (the so-called Anschluss) and the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, but so far it has not encountered serious resistance to its aggressive actions. On the first day of the war, the Germans were faced with the task of taking a military transit depot on the peninsula in the Gdansk Bay. The persistence with which a small contingent of Polish soldiers opposed the Reich war machine came as a surprise to the German command. This event went down in history as the defense of Westerplatte.
The Free City, next to which a military warehouse is located, was a disputed territory between Germany and Poland. It was already clear from 1933 that the Germans, sooner or later, would attempt to seize territories that they historically considered theirs. In this regard, the preparation of the warehouse for a possible defense began. A number of fortification works were carried out, 6 camouflaged guard rooms were created, existing civil and military facilities were prepared for defense. In addition, Polish soldiers have equipped special posts equipped with machine-gun nests - "Prom", "Fort", "Lazienki", "Power Plant", "Pristan" and "Railway Line" posts. The defense was created by Captain Mechislav Krushevsky and engineer Slavomir Borovsky.
Preparation of positions was carried out until 1939. Initially, the garrison was about 80-90 people, but after the provocation of 1938, it was decided to increase it to 210 people (including civilian personnel). According to the plan, after the beginning of the armed conflict, it was supposed to transfer here another 700 people from the Intervention Corps. However, on August 31, 1939, Lieutenant Colonel Vincenta Sobotinsky arrived in Westerplatte, who informed Henrik Sucharsky, the warehouse commander, about the cancellation of plans to defend Polish facilities in Gdansk, as well as that the Germans would most likely strike the next day. The lieutenant colonel urged the major to make a "balanced decision" in the event of a war.
To capture the well-fortified Polish warehouses, the Germans sent the Schleswig-Holstein training battleship to the Gdansk Bay. He was supposed to provide artillery support for the advancing German Marinesturmkompanie assault troops of about 500 marines. In addition, German units of up to six thousand people were present in the area, about 2 thousand were part of the special brigade SS-Heimwehr Danzig.
The Germans planned to launch an offensive early in the morning with massive artillery shelling, after which the SS Heimwehr battalion, two companies of the police force and a Marine Corps company were to attack. The shelling from the battleship began at 4:45 am and fell at the Prom post and in the area of checkpoint # 6. After that, the assault detachments entered the battle. Unexpectedly for themselves, the Germans faced a powerful defense and were stopped by machine gun fire from the Val and Prom positions.
Throughout the first day, German troops made numerous attempts to break the Polish defense. The attacks were carried out from different directions, but the Polish forces managed to successfully repel all attempts of the Germans to move forward. At the end of the first day, Polish losses amounted to 4 people killed and several wounded. The German assault troops lost about 100 people, a significant part of which fell on the Marines.
After the first setbacks, German troops began to actively use heavy artillery and aviation. On September 2, from 18:05 to 18:45, 47 U-87 dive bomber dropped a total of 26.5 tons of bombs. During the raid, command post # 5 was completely destroyed, and all the soldiers who were there were killed. However, the psychological damage from the attack was much greater. The besieged Polish fighters panicked and a riot broke out. The command took the most severe measures and shot four servicemen. However, the Germans were unable to take advantage of the effect achieved and began a new attack only at 20:00, when the Polish fighters were able to recover. After the evening attack, the commander of the garrison, Henrik Sukharsky, decided to surrender. Deputy Frantisek Dombrowski removed him from command and took over the management of the garrison. Legionnaire Jan Gembur, who hung out the white flag by order of the commander, was shot, and the flag was removed.
Fierce battles lasted for the next, third day. The Germans developed a special plan of attack, in which two battalions of the Krappe regiment, a company of marines and 45 sailors, armed with four machine guns, took part. The artillery preparation alternated with assault attacks, which, however, the Poles managed to successfully repulse. At night, the Germans tried to quietly break through in boats through the canal, but were found and shot from machine guns. The third day passed for the Poles without losses, besides, the declaration of war on Germany by Britain and France raised the morale of the personnel.
The fourth day began with a powerful artillery strike, in which, among other things, 210 mm mortars and 105 mm ship guns of the German flotilla took part. One of the shells of the German destroyer nearly hit an oil tank in the port of Gdansk, so the Germans abandoned the use of the fleet and recalled their destroyer. By the end of the day, the garrison began to experience problems with food, drinking water and medicine. On this day, none of the Polish soldiers died either, but fatigue was already noticeably felt and Major Sukharsky again spoke of surrender.
On the fifth day, the Germans transferred their fire to the trees surrounding the bunkers. They believed that snipers could take refuge there. Several attacks were made from the checkpoint No. 1, 4, as well as the Fort post, but they did not bring any visible effect. The morale of the soldiers continued to fall.
On September 6, the Germans again tried to burn the forest. For this, a tank with gasoline was dispersed by rail, but the defenders managed to undermine it far from their positions. Similar attempts continued in the evening of the same day, but were unsuccessful. Major Sukharsky again called a meeting at which he called for surrender. Commander Captain Dombrovsky and Lieutenant Grodetsky decided to continue the defense, they were supported by the majority of the personnel.
The Germans launched a general offensive against the weakened garrison on the morning of 7 September. The assault on Westerplatte began with massive artillery shelling from all the heavy weapons the Germans had. The main blow fell on command post # 2, which was soon completely destroyed. The shelling lasted for about two hours, after which the German assault detachments launched an offensive from the southeastern direction. The entry of an hour and a half battle, the Pole managed to push the Germans back and prevent hand-to-hand combat, for which the defenders simply did not have the strength.
Major Sukharsky, who oversaw the destruction of command post # 2, again raised the issue of surrender. He convinced the defenders to surrender their weapons and, at 10:15, gave the order to surrender. Sukharsky notified Marshal Rydz-Smigly of his decision, who awarded all the defenders of the garrison with military awards and another military rank.
The defenders of Westerplatte lost 16 people killed and 50 wounded. Many of them were sent to labor camps, where they worked in German factories and plants. Some of them subsequently fled and fought on the side of the Home Army, as well as in other military formations of both the West and the USSR. Of the 182 defenders of Westerplatte, 158 survived until the end of the war. Major Henrik Sukharsky spent the rest of the war in a German offlag, and died on August 20, 1946 in Naples.
The Germans lost up to 200-400 soldiers killed and wounded, and their advance on Hel was delayed by a week.
