1939 The Battle of Westerplatte
Take: One Battleship, two Torpedo Boats, several Armoured Vehicles, 65 Artillery Pieces, some flamethrower's, a total of 2,600 troops of various arms, plus airstrikes by the Luftwaffe.
versus205 Polish Soldiers and 25 Civilians, with one Field Gun, two Anti-Tank Guns and four mortars.
Result: a Battle that lasted seven days.
Notes:
However you view it, this was an amazing, if always doomed defence of a what after all was a
Military Transit Depot.
The initial Bombardment by the Battleship
Schleswig-Holstein is
officially deemed to be the start of World War II.
However a small number of German Special Forces Units crossed the Border on the 31st August, unaware the
attack had been
postponed for 24 Hours and briefly engaged Polish Border Troops.
This video, whilst it does NOT do justice to the events, is the best English Language one I can
find. Obviously all the footage is German and if your wondering about the sequence from the quay,
this was taken by a German Camera Team landed with the first assault force! The Tank sequences are
from other battles, but are evocative, if not historically accurate.
Links:
The Battle of Westerplatte - Gdansk Life
The Battle of Westerplatte - Wikipedia Entry
which has slightly different German and Garrison Numbers.
The is also a Polish Language movie, with English Sub-titles made in 1967 which is available in
10 Parts on YouTube:
Westerplatte (1967) Part01 [English Subtitles] - Polish war movie
