85th anniversary of the attack on Westerplatte. How did it happen?

September 1, 1939 At 4:00 a.m. the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein weighed its moorings, at 4:43 a.m. the logbook recorded: “The ship will attack Westerplatte“. 2 minutes later the first shot was fired and World War II began. The Westerplatte defense crew received an order to defend within 6-12 hours before September 1. The Poles fought bravely for 7 days.

Distribution of forces fighting at Westerplatte

When German army numerous and well equipped, began the attack, Only 182 sailors defended Poland.

Polish Defense Forces: :

18,000 soldiers,

137 weapons,

1 bettor,

1 destroyer “Wicher”,

6 minesweepers,

5 submarines,

2 gunboats,

1 artillery training ship,

23 planes.

German forces:

29,000 soldiers,

400 weapons,

2 warships,

11 destroyers,

8 or 10 submarines,

11 torpedo boats,

2 artillery ships.

120 planes.

Hitler’s “White Plan” against Poland

April 11, 1939 Adolf Hitler he planned strategic plan for war with Poland. The German Wehrmacht army headquarters codenamed the operation “White Plan“Hitler issued this directive immediately after the conclusion of the Polish-British agreement of April 6, 1939, providing for mutual guarantees of military assistance in the event of an attack by Germany. Hitler’s plan assumed the outbreak of hostilities without an act of declaration of war and carrying it out immediately. Wehrmacht Army was to attack Poland from three directions along Poland’s western border: from East Prussia, Pomerania and German-dependent Slovakia. The aim was to hit the glass attack on Warsaw.

World War II should have broken out sooner

WITH 22-23 August Supreme Command of the Polish Armed Forces issued an emergency mobilization order 70% of the Polish army. On August 24 another order arrived, this time to mobilize most of the units on the Coast – it was calm and very effective, which was certainly due to the fact that the impending war had been known for many weeks. On August 25 the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein entered Gdańsk, and this fact was accepted by embassy of the Republic of Poland. The pretext was to honor the memory of the German sailors from the cruiser Magdeburg who died in the Baltic Sea and were buried in Gdańsk in August 1914. Hitler planned an offensive against Poland for August 26. But August 25th at 3:02pm This plan was postponed until September 1. This decision was dictated by the desire to provoke some incident with Poland, in order to present to the world that German troops had to defend themselves against Polish aggression.

Westerplatte is a symbol of defensive warfare and an inflexible attitude Polish crewwho, despite the overwhelming pressure of the German forces, tried to defend himself.