Siege of the Hel Peninsula
A camouflaged position of Polish cannons
| date | September 9 to October 2, 1939 |
|---|---|
| place | Hel Peninsula , Poland |
| output | German victory |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
unknown |
|
.svg){kind=small}
.svg){kind=small}
Gdansk - Westerplatte - Tucheler Heide - Krojanten - Mlawa - Radom - Wizna - Bzura - Brześć - Lemberg - Rawa Ruska - Lublin - Kampinos Heath - Warsaw - Szack - Modlin - Hel Peninsula - Kock
The siege of the Hel Peninsula was one of the longest battles in the attack on Poland at the beginning of World War II .
On the Hel Peninsula and the city of Hel ( German: Hela ) held the longest Polish resistance during the German invasion of Poland in 1939. An estimated 3,000 soldiers of the unit Helski Rejon Umocniony , part of the coastal defense group ( Grupa Obrony Wybrzeża ) under Włodzimierz Steyer , defended the Area between September 9th through October 2nd. On October 2nd the group surrendered.
prehistory
In 1928 Poland established a military port in Hel, after which the entire peninsula was declared a fortified region in 1936. The Helski Rejon Umocniony was stationed there. Altogether there were about 3,000 soldiers, three anti-ship batteries and anti-aircraft guns in Hel. The coastal defense batteries were equipped with 4 × 152 mm guns, two older 2 × 105 mm guns and three batteries with 8 × 75 mm guns. The air defense consisted of 6 × 75 mm and 8 × 40 mm cannons.
The battle
,_1935,_637043_(5).JPG)
The German Air Force began air raids on Hel on the day of the German raid (September 1). The German Wehrmacht forced Polish units of the Pomeranian Army ( Armia Pomorze ) to withdraw from the Danzig corridor as early as the first week of the war . The attack on Hel began on September 9th. The Armia Pomorze was defeated in the battle of the Tucheler Heide (September 5th). After further Polish defeats on the coast followed - Westerplatte , Gdynia and Kępa Oksywska - Hel was the last place of resistance on the coast from 20 September.
On September 3, the Poles managed to damage a German destroyer. After the sinking of some Polish ships by the Air Force, Polish marines rescued themselves on land and joined the Hel land forces . The German Navy shelled Hel with the ships Schleswig-Holstein and Silesia the Schleswig-Holstein was slightly damaged on 25 September. The anti-aircraft batteries shot down between 46 and 53 aircraft.
On September 14th, the Germans managed to separate the Polish forces from the mainland. They then brought in heavy artillery to intensify the siege. On September 25, the village of Chałupy (now part of Władysławowo ) was conquered by the Wehrmacht.
On October 1, the Polish naval commander in chief Józef Unrug realized that Hel could no longer be supplied with supplies and on October 2 the Polish armed forces surrendered in Hel. It was the penultimate surrender of Polish forces during the German invasion of Poland.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d e f Henry Steele Commager , The Story of the Second World War. Brassey's, 2003, ISBN 1-57488-741-6 , Google Print, pp. 16-19 .
- ↑ a b c J. E. Kaufmann , Robert M. Jurga , Fortress Europe: European Fortifications of World War II. De Capo Press, 2002, ISBN 0-306-81174-X Google Print, p. 272 .
Web links
- Siege of the Hel Peninsula on 1939.pl (Polish)