We loved Old Town Gdansk so much, it was difficult to leave it, even for a partial day-trip, but on our last full day we decided to venture out, as Keegan talked about in his latest post. Our first stop was the northern Gdansk peninsula of Westerplatte. This was the site where WWII was officially started.
I haven’t seen why the Germans chose this little strip of land as their first point of attack on September 1, 1939, but I do know that they were surprised at the level of resistance with which they were met. The events that transpired came to be called the Battle of Westerplatte because the Poles never gave up without a fight! (We’ve seen time and again in our studies of WWII how resilient the Poles were against all odds. It’s really inspiring.) In this particular instance, the German plan seemed to be to sufficiently shell Westerplatte from a distance and then send in soldiers to finish the job, but to their surprise, the first several times they came in on foot to finish the job, they found themselves bombarded by Polish forces and sustaining enough casualties to retreat. Over the course of six days, the Germans leveled attacks against Westerplatte by battleship, dive bombers, torpedo boats, ground artillery, and even an oil-filled container pushed by a train that was meant to act as a bomb (the Poles destroyed it before it got to them). It wasn’t until September 7th that the Poles finally surrendered Westerplatte, having learned how extensive the German occupation of Poland already was, and seeing how desperate their situation was in terms of dwindling supplies of food and ammunition.
80 years later, Westerplatte exists as a very quiet peninsula with several memorials commemorating the heroism of the Polish soldiers that chose to fight. Ruins of some barracks and guardhouses are still there, and we even walked through an old partially-fallen down building that looked like it could crumble at any moment. I’m glad we got to visit this important landmark that celebrates the spirit of the Polish people and honors those first defenders of WWII.
Thanks for posting this, Michael. I’m learning a lot from your posts – all of you. I appreciate the adult perspectives to bring it all together, especially.
Thanks Suzannah! It’s been so interesting to learn about these places and it helps sink in even more when writing about them. I’m glad to hear you’re learning as well!