ASLComp Case White Westerplatte EVERYMAN Edition

Westerplatte Peninsula, FREE CITY OF DANZIG, POLAND, 1 September 1939: In 1925 the League of Nations allowed Poland to keep only 88 soldiers in their positions on the Westerplatte peninsula. Secretly, however, the garrison was slowly expanded to 176 men and six officers. The position was separated from Danzig by the harbour channel, and only a small pier connected them to the mainland. The Polish-held part of the Westerplatte was separated from the territory of Danzig by a brick wall. Fortifications built at Westerplatte were in fact not very impressive: there were no real bunkers or underground tunnels, there were only five small concrete outposts (guardhouses) hidden in the peninsula's forest; and a large barracks prepared for defense, supported by a network of field fortifications such as trenches and barricades. Cellars of outposts were fit to fire heavy-machine guns from within them. In case of war, the defenders were expected to withstand a sustained attack for 12 hours. Beginning on September 1, 1939, German naval forces and soldiers launched World War two with their attack on the Polish Military Transit Depot (Wojskowa Skladnica Tranzytowa, WST) on the peninsula of Westerplatte. Despite estimates of their ability to hold out, the Polish garrison held on for seven days in the face of a German onslaught that included Stuka dive bomber attacks. The defense of Westerplatte served as an inspiration for the Polish Army and people in the face of the debut of the Blitzkreig amidst German Case White. Their struggle is still regarded as a symbol of resistance to the Nazi invasion that plunged the world into war.