Description of the attraction
Westerplatte is a peninsula located on the shores of the Baltic Sea near the city of Gdansk. In September 1939, Polish and German forces clashed at Westerplatte during the invasion of Poland. In 1830, a resort area with a beach, a forest park and a bath complex was founded on the peninsula.
In 1924, the League of Nations, under whose jurisdiction Gdansk was, gave its consent to the creation of a transit warehouse for military weapons at Westerplatte, and a few months later to the creation of a military garrison. Germany had a number of grievances over the establishment of a military depot on the peninsula. Therefore, in 1939, the first military strike was struck at Westerplatte. At that time, there were 176 employees in the garrison, who were armed with one 75-mm cannon, two anti-tank guns, four mortars, and several machine guns. There were no real fortifications on the peninsula, only guardhouses hidden in the forest. Major Henrik Sukharsky was appointed commander of the garrison at that time.
The attack on the peninsula began on September 1 with a German artillery strike that lasted 10 minutes. Fierce battles were fought until September 7, when German troops launched an assault on Westerplatte. After the capture of the garrison, the wounded Polish military were taken to the Medical Academy of Gdansk, and the rest of the soldiers and officers were distributed to camps, where they worked in factories and factories. Radiotelephone operator Kazimierz Rasinski was shot for refusing to hand over secret codes to the Germans.
Currently, there is a museum on the Westerplatte peninsula on the site of the former guardhouse number 1.
