Battle of Westerplatte
first battle in the invasion of Poland, the beginning of the Second World War
The Battle of Westerplatte was the first battle of the German invasion of Poland, marking the start of World War II in Europe. It occurred on the Westerplatte peninsula in the harbour of the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). A small forested island separated from Gdansk by the harbour channel, Westerplatte was established as a Polish military outpost during the interwar period.
In the mid-1920s, the Second Polish Republic established the Polish Military Transit Depot (Wojskowa Składnica Tranzytowa, WST) on the Westerplatte peninsula in the Free City of Danzig. Beginning on 1 September 1939, the German Wehrmacht and Danzig Police assaulted the WST. Despite initial assessment on both sides that the Polish garrison might hold out for several hours before being reinforced or overwhelmed, the Poles held out for seven days and repelled thirteen assaults that included dive-bomber attacks and naval shelling.
The defence of the Westerplatte was an inspiration for the Polish Army and people in the face of German advances elsewhere and is still regarded as a symbol of resistance in modern Poland. The Polish government in Gdańsk is planning to open a dedicated public museum on the site in 2026.
Background
Westerplatte is a peninsula in the Bay of Gdańsk, which in 1939 was known as the Bay of Danzig. Following the re-establishment of Polish independence after World War I, much of the surrounding region became part of Poland. The city of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), historically an important port city, became an independent city-state, the Free City of Danzig.
“Battle of Westerplatte” enters the record as first battle in the invasion of Poland, the beginning of the Second World War. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Battle, Westerplatte and first can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q533034. The Library of Congress control number is sh85146294. Authority coordinates are 54.407, 18.671. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1939 and 2026.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Westerplatte” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.